It helps to identify problems

For Professor Steve Field, RCGP chairman

The best doctors should want to develop their knowledge and skills and do the best for patients. Revalidation is the important new challenge. We must not forget that it has the potential to benefit patients and doctors.

A lot of work has gone into defining the standards by which any doctor should be recognised, whether GP or consultant, and we now have a timetable for implementation.

In England we are lagging behind Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. I find it shocking that some GPs are working in areas where primary care trusts are not supporting their professional development or conducting appraisals.

When appraisal is done well, it supports doctors and helps to improve. It can identify problems early so that a doctor can be helped.

The task for the Royal College of General Practitioners and other medical colleges is to produce guidance and a workable system that can cover the breadth of the profession – whether it’s a rural GP or a hospital consultant.

A Shipman would sail through

Against Dr Martyn Lobley, GP in London

I have pamphlets about fitness to practise that stretch back over my 20-odd years as a GP. They all say the same – a good doctor keeps up to date with advances in medical knowledge and can explain them to patients, allowing them to make well-informed choices.

So why can’t frontline medics take revalidation seriously? Because, as the Chief Medical Officer’s report admits, NHS appraisal is not fit for relicensing across the country as a whole.

I had an “annual” appraisal three times in two years. Each was a shameless waste of my time and the appraiser’s. I am a pretty good family doctor. I read journals and practice reports to keep abreast of clinical developments. None of this would be reflected in any revalidation exercise.

I don’t have evidence of many “educational” meetings because I don’t think an evening eating lamb biryani while listening to a drug company-sponsored speaker recommending his paymaster’s latest miracle pill is well spent. If a new drug catches my eye I will look up the research and draw my conclusions. But as far as revalidation is concerned, that scores me nil points. The irony is that Harold Shipman would have sailed through his appraisal.

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