'Make your connection' campaign briefing

The campaign:

• On 18 April, we will start a campaign to get licensed doctors to confirm their ‘designated bodies’. This is a major campaign that will last the rest of the year.
• Doctors do not need to do anything until they receive their information pack through the post.
• We need this information from doctors before revalidation begins at the end of 2012 because we need to know where recommendations about doctors will come from when revalidation starts.
• By working with the NHS we already have the information for 120,000 doctors. We will be asking around 50,000 trainees to tell us their connection as part of the National Trainees Survey.
• The remaining 54,000 are the doctors we will be targeting first in the ‘Make your connections’. This group includes 16,000 doctors who have a non-UK registered address.
• For most doctors, finding their designated body will be fairly straightforward because it will be the organisation in which they spend most of their practice.
• We have tried to help doctors by working out their designated bodies for them, using data from the NHS. Most doctors will just need to visit GMC Online to confirm that the information we have for them is correct.
• We have not been able work this out for every doctor. Some will need to find their designated bodies themselves. These are the doctors we are targeting first.
• Reminder phases are planned.

 Read the press release about the 'Make your connection' campaign.