Revalidation
The General Medical Council's (GMC) plans for revalidation of doctors are now taking shape.
In 2006 the Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, published his report Good Doctors, safer patients. The report was in response to recommendations made by Same Janet Smith in her fifth and sixth reports following the inquiry into Dr Harold Shipman.
Sir Liam recommended that doctors must revalidate in order to maintain their registration with the GMC. Revalidation will consist of two parts; re-licensure for doctors who wish to stay on the GMC medical register and re-certification for those who wish to retain their specialist registration.
In February 2007 the government published its White Paper, Trust, assurance and safety: the regulation of health professionals, in response to Sir Liam's report.
Since then all medical Royal Colleges and Faculties have been working with the GMC both directly and through the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (AoMRC) to set the standard for revalidation.
The Faculty is committed to ensuring that there is a process for revalidation for pharmaceutical physicians wherever their place of work, whatever their role and we have made excellent progress with developing processes for pharmaceutical physicians to re-licence and re-certify. It is intended that these processes will be available to all pharmaceutical physicians, whether they are members of the Faculty or not.
We have quite detailed proposals as to how the Faculty can assist member and non-member pharmaceutical physicians in two aspects of re-licensing, namely the provision of an appraisal system and a process for multi-source feedback, both of which can be difficult for those working in small organisations or as independent consultants. There is still a lot of work to be done to define the details of both these but the proposals were acceptable in principle to the GMC.
In terms of the third aspect of re-licensure for pharmaceutical physicians - the GMC affiliate - this has also been discussed with the GMC and the concept we put forward as to how this requirement could be met received a positive response from them. In terms of re-certification we are keeping abreast of other Colleges and Faculties in developing our proposals. We are fully engaged with the AoMRC. This has been an excellent forum through which we can ensure our proposals for re-certification onto the specialist register meet the same standards.
We are proposing a collation of validated evidence to demonstrate chosen competencies contained within the Pharmaceutical Medicine Specialty Training (PMST) curriculum, but no examination.
We recognise that in pharmaceutical medicine, as in other medical specialties, there is great diversity of practice and that a single curriculum for re-certification would not be practical. It is intended that re-certification will reflect the doctors current practise and be tailored accordingly.
In order to assist the Faculty in formulating more detailed proposals for revalidation we shall be consulting with members as the plans develop. Our first major consultation will be in the form of a survey, which will be sent out before the summer.
However, in the meantime pharmaceutical physicians should continue with collating their evidence for Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
It is highly likely that for re-certification, but not necessarily for re-licensure, evidence will need to be collated in an electronic portfolio. We are currently investigating the practicalities of this in conjunction with our parent colleges and some other medical specialties. We will keep you informed as this work develops.
The first steps by the GMC for the process of revalidation are that they will be introducing the first licences to practise in 2009 once all the relevant legislation is in place.
In the future, any doctor who wishes to practise in the UK will need to maintain registration with the GMC and hold a licence to practise. Doctors who are currently registered, but do not wish to practise, may retain registration only.
This introduction of a licence to practise will be a critical step in the development and implementation of revalidation. All licensed doctors will need to participate in revalidation. Doctors who choose to maintain registration only will not need to participate in revalidation but they will not be able to practise medicine in the UK.
The timetable for this 2009 date is as follows:
June 2008: Closing of the government consultation on the draft legislative changes that need to be put in place in order to implement licensing and to commence piloting of revalidation.
September 2008: GMC issues information about revalidation to all doctors and stakeholders.
Jan - March 2009: GMC consults on draft licence to practise regulations and supporting guidance for doctors.
July 2009: Licence to practise regulations approved.
If you have any queries, whether you are a member of the Faculty or not, please do contact us at fpm@fpm.org.uk or on 020 7224 0343.
Useful documents include 
Good Pharmaceutical Medical Practice GPMP and 
Revalidation Guidance and Appraisal Form.
Useful links
Academy of Medical Royal Colleges
Chief Medical Officer - Medical education and revalidation
This page was lasted updated in May 2008