Features: Chair maps path to revalidation
Keith Pearson, Chair of the UK Revalidation Programme Board.
27 July 2009
Keith Pearson explains why he is a keen advocate of revalidation and how the UKPRB is preparing for implementation.
Quality of service has been a central focus of Keith Pearson’s career in both the public and private healthcare sectors; it is this passion and experience that has made him a fervent advocate for the benefits of revalidation – although he is under no illusions about the challenges that implementation will bring.
The new Chair of the UK Revalidation Programme Board says: ‘If there’s one thing that has followed me through my private and public sector careers, it has been the constant interest in both clinical and corporate governance; so revalidation is for me an extension of something that I’ve been interested in all of my working life.’
Ensuring good quality healthcare delivery
During his five years as Chief Executive of BUPA in the Far East, Keith had a considerable interest in the provision of healthcare. Now, in the public sector for over 10 years, both in primary care and more recently as Chair of the East of England Strategic Health Authority, he describes his role as ensuring that the NHS provides safe, effective care in an environment that preserves dignity and privacy.
This, he says, is the link to his new role chairing the UKRPB: ‘There is a real connection between what I do in my day job and what I’m doing here which is ensuring that good quality exists within healthcare delivery.’ Revalidation, he believes, will be a crucial tool in achieving that quality.
Keith takes the helm of the Board at a significant point on the journey towards revalidation. The groundwork, as he puts it, has already been done: ‘What’s interesting with the team here is that they are very much at the “preparing stage” for implementation. It’s not about trying to sell revalidation as an idea anymore, it’s about getting ready to roll out revalidation. That’s quite encouraging for a new Chair coming in because some of the initial problems have been, or are being, largely addressed. Now what we are looking for is to understand what implementation challenges there might be and find solutions.’
He also feels that the time is right to push forward with revalidation: ‘I think both the profession and the NHS recognise that patients are acting increasingly as consumers and what consumers tend to want is to have reference points that enable them to decide whether goods or services are up to the standards that they have come to expect. I think the profession and the public recognise that revalidation is one of the cornerstones of ensuring that those standards are being met.’
Promoting a long and proud tradition of good quality care
This is not to say that he thinks there is a lack of confidence in healthcare provision, and he believes doctors of all specialties should see revalidation as empowering rather than disempowering.
‘The profession has a long and proud tradition of delivering good quality care and I think revalidation is a great opportunity for them to promote that through a modern form of validation of good governance. I think many members of the profession will embrace that and see that as a very good by-product.
'For the providers of healthcare, the hospitals and so on, revalidation will be an important means to demonstrate further that theirs is a good hospital or a good healthcare service in which to receive care because they’ve embedded revalidation within their governance practice.’
The UKRPB’s job, Keith says, is to understand and recognise any practical issues and problems that doctors and healthcare providers might have at a local level and to put forward recommendations to overcome such challenges.
He also stresses that the success of revalidation will be largely dependent on robust local systems being in place: ‘The progress towards readiness really has to be driven in a practical way by the local delivery boards and that’s something else the Programme Board will be overseeing to ensure that those boards are keeping that momentum going.’