RCS President Professor Norman Williams has welcomed the official start of the revalidation of doctors as good news in a statement: “Regular assessment should be an integral part of a surgeon’s life. These changes have been a long time coming and we fully support them. Surgeons being able to go through their entire career without their competency and professional development being reviewed is undesirable and it is right that we change this. However the process should wherever possible be supportive and encourage surgeons to aspire to excellence so that they can provide the highest standards of care for their patients.”
Revalidation will be the process which all doctors are required to undergo every five years in order to continue practising medicine.
Professor Williams continues: “It is our view that the start of revalidation is only the beginning of this process. As it is implemented, we would like to see clear commitment from the GMC towards the continuous improvement of the revalidation process. We urge the regulator to go further and adopt advanced standards, specific to each speciality, and develop a system which is tailored for surgeons. In addition to this it is vital that the measurement of surgical outcomes becomes a central part of the revalidation process in the future.”
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