FAQs - Breaks in service
Last updated: 1 March 2010
Questions on this page
- 1. I have been ill for over a year and have missed both my appraisal and much Continuing Professional Development (CPD) activity during that time. What should I do to revalidate?
- 2. I took a career break a few years ago and during that time I did not hold a licence. Once I have restored my licence how soon will I need to revalidate, and how will I meet the requirements if I don't have five years of work to draw on?
More information can be found on our revalidation page.
<< Return to main page More Revalidation FAQs >>
1. I have been ill for over a year and have missed both my appraisal and much Continuing Professional Development (CPD) activity during that time. What should I do to revalidate?
If you are on long-term sick leave, there is no need for you to maintain a licence to practise. You can relinquish your licence and apply for it to be restored once you are fit and well. However, before relinquishing your licence you should check with your employer whether there is any contractual need for you to retain it.
Assuming that you are now back at work, the fact that you missed an appraisal and CPD activity while you were on sick leave should not prevent you from revalidating.
In general, the GMC will expect evidence for revalidation to be not more than five years old. If you have no medical practice or CPD to draw on over the last year, account will be taken of information relating to your four years' medical practice prior to that. Your next revalidation date will then be set for four years' time; that is to say, a total of five years from the date of the most recent evidence for your last revalidation.
2. I took a career break a few years ago and during that time I did not hold a licence. Once I have restored my licence how soon will I need to revalidate, and how will I meet the requirements if I don't have five years of work to draw on?
We still have some work to do to finalise exactly how we will approach this situation, but our current thinking is as follows.
Doctors will normally be expected to revalidate every five years. If your career break was of less than five years, you will normally be required to revalidate on the anniversary of your five-year cycle. That will mean that you will have less than five years' work to draw upon for your revalidation. This will not matter as long as you have sufficient information about your practice to show that you are meeting the relevant generic and specialty standards (see Section 2 of the consultation document about methods and supporting information for revalidation). If you have only been back in practice for a very short time before your revalidation falls due, we might need to defer your revalidation date for a short period to give you the opportunity to generate more information to support your revalidation.
If your career break was longer than five years, your licence will be restored but you will be required to revalidate within two years of returning to practice.