General Medical Council ready for revalidation

The General Medical Council (GMC) today (19 July) declared that it is ready to deliver revalidation later this year.

The regulator’s Revalidation Delivery Board has concluded that it has the systems, processes, and infrastructure in place, including its own responsible officers, needed to support the introduction of revalidation in December 2012.

In a report submitted to its governing Council, the delivery board confirmed that because of the ‘significant progress’ made by the GMC to date, the organisation is on track to deliver the remaining key milestones from now until December.

The GMC’s internal auditors undertook an independent assessment which said the Revalidation Programme Planning team was operating effectively and all objectives are being met.

This includes delivering the overall schedules of revalidation submission dates as well as issuing notice to doctors and responsible officers on revalidation recommendation submission dates.

The Council agreed with the delivery board’s recommendation that the GMC is now ready to implement revalidation.

Niall Dickson, Chief Executive of the GMC, today said:

‘Revalidation is on its way. Subject to the Secretary of State’s decision to switch on the legislation, from the end of this year we will begin to tell each doctor the date when he or she will be expected to revalidate. We are entering a new phase – after years of discussion about the principle, the reality of revalidation is imminent.

‘We will be ready to start delivering revalidation from the end of this year and we are confident that the healthcare systems across the UK will also be ready. Now is the time to get on with this.’