GMC publishes patient and colleague questionnaires for doctors

The General Medical Council (GMC) has today published final versions of its questionnaires to help employers and doctors collect feedback from patients and colleagues.

Seeking feedback using a questionnaire enables colleague and patient views about a doctor’s practice to be gathered in a systematic way.

Patient and colleague feedback is one element of supporting information that the GMC requires doctors to collect and reflect upon as part of revalidation.

The questionnaires, based on the GMC’s core guidance Good Medical Practice, have been subject to in depth research over several years and tested with 1,450 doctors, 44,000 patients and 21,000 colleagues in a project led by Professor John Campbell at Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry.

Niall Dickson, the Chief Executive of the General Medical Council, said:

‘For the vast majority of doctors, the feedback they receive will be overwhelmingly positive but there will also be things they can learn, and insights they can gain about their practice. When revalidation comes in, we will be the first nation in the world to require every doctor to obtain feedback from their patients and colleagues in this way.

‘The questionnaires we’re publishing today are free for employers and doctors to use. They’ve been extensively tested, and if administered properly, should enable doctors to understand how their practice is viewed by those they treat and those they work with.

‘We regard this as the start of a process – medical practice relies on trust between doctors and their patients, and between healthcare professionals - their views matter and I am sure that over time more ways will be found to gather them.’

The GMC also has guidance to help employers administer these questionnaires and assist appraisers to interpret feedback for doctors.

The GMC said using its questionnaires is not mandatory but all doctors must seek such feedback to support their revalidation.

Doctors and employers who choose to use another feedback tool as part of the process of revalidation must ensure that it meets criteria published by the GMC.