Fri, 19 Oct 2012

Described as the most significant shake-up in medical regulation in over 150 years, from December doctors will start having to submit to regular checks to demonstrate they are up to date and fit to practice.

This is according to an announcement made today by health secretary Jeremy Hunt, who outlines that checks will be done for individuals normally every five years for all doctors in all settings across the UK. There are 230,000 licensed doctors in the UK, and a pilot scheme has involved over 4,000.

Professor Sir Peter Rubin, chair of the General Medical Council (GMC), the medical regulator, calls this an “historic” day for the profession, and says: “We are confident that the introduction of revalidation will make a major contribution to the quality of care that patients receive and will give them valuable assurance that the doctors who treat them are regularly assessed against our professional standards.”

Simon Hudson, a director at recruiter Hays, also welcomes the new scheme, but cautions: “When doctors are recruited extensive checks are undertaken and we welcome that this is now to be maintained on a regular and formal basis. It is important that the new process is proportionate and doesn’t add unnecessarily to bureaucracy.”