Revalidation will improve patient safety, GMC tells MPs

Regular checks on doctors are essential in delivering high quality healthcare, the Commons Health Select Committee has heard.

Niall Dickson, the Chief Executive of the General Medical Council; Professor Malcolm Lewis, GMC Council Member and GP; and Una Lane, Director for Continued Practice and Revalidation gave evidence to the Committee’s inquiry on revalidation this morning.

The Committee’s inquiry comes a week after the GMC published a joint statement with the four health departments of the UK, expressing a shared commitment to introducing revalidation from late 2012.

Speaking to the Committee, Niall Dickson outlined the GMC’s commitment to ensuring good local systems of monitoring and support for doctors to help improve patient safety:

“Unequivocally, revalidation is our top priority. This is what we believe is the most important thing in advancing the quality of medical regulation and having an impact in the long term in improving patient safety.

“There is a paradox here: in one sense this is the biggest change in medical regulation in more than 150 years, but what we are asking the system to do, it should be doing anyway. Appraisal has been within GP and specialist contracts for some years. I believe the work we are doing is acting as a catalyst and is encouraging organisations to put in place these systems of clinical governance.

“We have got a real commitment from the four countries; we have a date to aim for, and can set the milestones in place. We are all absolutely committed to making this work. For it to be as simple as possible – yet not just a tick box exercise – is about getting the balance right.

“Revalidation will start to provide a level of assurance that we haven’t been able to for the last 150 years.”

Today the GMC also launched a podcast in which Niall Dickson discusses the results of our consultation on revalidation and our announcement that revalidation is set to begin in late 2012. Listen to the revalidation podcast.