Every registered doctor in the UK is to receive a special update on revalidation, as the GMC’s bi-monthly magazine for doctors, GMCtoday has been re-branded for a one-off edition called Revalidation Update.
The Update will provide doctors with invaluable information about proposals for revalidation and what they will need to do. It also reminds doctors how important their opinions will be in shaping the process of revalidation through the GMC’s ongoing consultation.
“Revalidation will provide a focus for every one of us to maintain and improve our practice. It will also help ensure that the organisations in which we work support us in doing this. I hope that this GMCtoday special edition, Revalidation Update, will encourage doctors to respond to the proposals and contribute to the consultation”
“Revalidation has the potential to have far reaching consequences for all doctors. The GMC’s consultation is your opportunity to help shape what the new system will look like and how it is implemented. I urge you to read the consultation document and feed in your views.”
The consultation, which is open until 4 June 2010, asks a series of key questions in order to help shape the process and the GMC is seeking the views of doctors and employers.
Notes to Editors:
For further information please contact the Media Relations Office on 020 7189 5454, out of hours 020 7189 5444, email press@gmc-uk.org, website www.gmc-uk.org.
The General Medical Council registers and licenses doctors to practise medicine in the UK. Our purpose is summed up in the phrase: Regulating doctors, Ensuring Good Medical Practice.
The law gives us four main functions:
- keeping up-to-date registers of qualified doctors
- fostering good medical practice
- promoting high standards of medical education
- dealing firmly and fairly with doctors whose fitness to practise is in doubt
Merger of PMETB with GMC
From 1 April 2010, (subject to legislation) the functions of the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board (PMETB) will be transferred to the GMC, creating a simpler and clearer framework for the regulation of medical education and training.
In February 2008, the Secretary of State announced that PMETB would be merged with the GMC, following a recommendation from Sir John Tooke’s Independent Inquiry into Modernising Medical Careers. Following the merger, all stages of medical education and training will fall under the GMC’s remit.
Office of the Health Professions Adjudicator (OHPA)
From April 2011, the adjudication of fitness to practise cases involving doctors will transfer from the GMC to a new body called the Office of the Health Professions Adjudicator (OHPA). OHPA is being established under the Health and Social Care Act 2008. It is being created to ensure clear separation between the investigation of fitness to practise cases and the process of determining whether a professional’s fitness to practise is impaired.
To begin with, the new body will be responsible for making decisions on fitness to practise cases brought forward by the GMC and, in time, the General Optical Council. Over time, other regulators of healthcare professionals may transfer their adjudication functions to OHPA. For more information about OHPA, please visit www.ohpa.org.uk
The GMC will remain the regulator for doctors, continuing to set the standards for professional practice and receiving and investigating allegations about their fitness to practise.
