Regulating doctors, ensuring good medical practice

Performance review and revalidation

All doctors

  1. 30. You should be familiar with the individual performance review process in all the organisations in which you work.
  2. 31. You must take part in annual appraisals and you must make sure that your appraisal covers your whole practice, including any non-clinical roles.
  3. 32. If you hold a licence to practise, you must take part in revalidation.

Doctors with extra responsibilities

  1. 33. You must make sure that staff you manage, including doctors in sessional and other non-training posts, have enough time to prepare for their appraisals or performance reviews and that they have the opportunity to complete them fully and on time.
  2. 34. You must be honest and objective and keep to the principles of equality and diversity when appraising or assessing colleagues’ performance. This includes when assessing trainees during the Annual Review of Competence Progression (ARCP) or other equivalent process. The safety of patients and the public could be put at risk if you make false, exaggerated or incomplete comments about another professional’s competence or experience.
  3. 35. You should support staff you manage to complete learning and development activities identified by appraisals or performance reviews.
  4. 36. If you appraise or assess colleagues, you should make sure that you have the appropriate knowledge and skills. You should make sure that any staff you manage who also carry out appraisals have the knowledge and skills to do so, and are given regular feedback on how they perform this role.
  5. 37. If you are responsible for designing and delivering services, you should make sure that there is an appropriate appraisal or performance review process in place and that staff understand and follow it. You should also make sure that there are ways of dealing with any problems that appraisals bring to light. If the appraisal process includes clinical academic staff, you should make sure it follows the Follett principles.3
  6. 38. If you are a responsible officer within a designated body, you will have extra responsibilities as set out in the relevant regulations4 and you must take account of any guidance produced by the departments of health5 or your organisation.