More than 7,500 doctors, including some of the UK’s most senior clinicians, have been revalidated by the General Medical Council (GMC) during the first six months of its new system of checks.
Medical leaders – including Professor Sir Peter Rubin, Chair of the GMC, Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS Medical Director for England and Dr Clare Gerada, Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners – were among the first to be revalidated following introduction of the checks on 3 December 2012.
In the first six months, 7,663 doctors had their recommendation for revalidation approved by the GMC. They will continue to have annual checks over the next five years, after which they will be due to be revalidated again. By the end of this year the GMC expects to confirm that up to 30,000 UK doctors have revalidated. The aim is for the vast majority of doctors to go through the process by 2016.
The UK is the first country in the world to introduce revalidation across its whole healthcare system, covering GPs, hospital doctors, locums and those working in the independent sector. The GMC has already begun work on how to evaluate the system as it rolls out.
Niall Dickson, the GMC’s Chief Executive and Registrar, said:
“After years of debate and planning we are now on the road with revalidation and delighted with the way it is working so far. The success of the first six months is a significant achievement for the doctors who have revalidated and the organisations they work for.”
www.gmc-uk.org
