Medacs Healthcare has announced that it has completed a revalidation pilot scheme for `full time` locum doctors.

In September 2011 the NHS Revalidation Support Team (RST) selected Medacs Healthcare as a pilot organisation to test and inform the development of the Medical Appraisal Guide. The RST is a Department of Health funded body that works in partnership with the Department of Health, the GMC and designated bodies to deliver an effective system of revalidation for doctors in England.

In completing the pilot Medacs Healthcare carried out 125 appraisals, and all participants provided their feedback on the process by completing an online questionnaire. People have found the process very rewarding and useful preparation for the introduction of revalidation next year.

"This is a very exciting time as participants have had a real opportunity to help shape the future of revalidation through their feedback. The pilot also helped to ensure that revalidation systems are right for all doctors, regardless of their specialty or context within which they practise."
- Yvonne Greig, Revalidation Project Manager, Medacs Healthcare

Click here to read more about the pilot.

The subject of Appraisal & Revalidation has been a hot topic in the NHS for the past few years. Recently the Department of Health has given clearer guidelines for the role of the Locum Agencies in respect of Appraisal & Revalidation.

Medacs Healthcare has been involved in a series of planning and consultations meeting with the Department of Health and intends to fully meet it’s obligations as a responsible agency regarding this important process. This will involve ensuring that all Locum Doctors receive an annual appraisal and that “revalidation” takes place once every five years.

Agency Plans - Key Facts

• Responsible Officers to be appointed and in place with Designated Bodies by 1st October 2010
• OGC Framework Agencies to be classed as Designated Bodies
• Post graduate trainees to be Revalidated by Deanery
• First Revalidations to take place during 2011

An increasing emphasis will be generating feedback on a Locum Doctors performance. Medacs Healthcare already request a post assignment assessment form is completed by the supervising consultant after every assignment undertaken by the locum. It will become increasingly necessary for Trust representatives to support this assessment process ensuring timely feedback is given regarding a Locum Doctors performance.

Over the coming months we will further communicate our plans to all clients and be looking for feedback where possible. For more information email:

revalidation@medacs.com

Proposed plans to overhaul medical regulation would see doctors facing an appraisal every year.

The revalidation scheme would see licences to practise issued every five years by the General Medical Council based on annual appraisals of the skills and knowledge held by an estimated 218,000 UK doctors.

Patients and people working in the medical profession are to be asked how they think the proposals should be introduced.

The GMC said that although pilot schemes had already got going, the plan will be phased in gradually over five years from 2011.

Niall Dickson, GMC chief executive, said: "This represents the biggest change in medical regulations for 150 years. What we are attempting to do is to move away from a register which is based on a history of qualifications towards a contemporary record, or a near contemporary record of performance.

"This is ambitious in the sense that there is not another nation in the world which has attempted to do this, so we are going to be trail blazers."

Copyright ⌐ Press Association 2010

Doctors` skills should be checked as often as those of airline pilots to ensure they can perform under pressure, according to the Health Secretary.

Andy Burnham cited the example of the US pilot who famously made an emergency landing in New York`s Hudson River, saving all his passengers.

Mr Burnham said doctors` decisions "quite often spell the difference between life and death", like Captain Chesley Sullenberger, who expertly landed his aircraft in January 2009 after apparently colliding with a flock of birds.

Pilots are assessed around 100 times during their careers. In the medical profession, Mr Burnham`s new system of appraisals, which will see skills assessed every five years to ensure competence to practice, will be tested by around 3,000 doctors.

Doctors will have to prove their competence every five years through a process called revalidation, a system called for during the inquiry into the mass murders by GP Harold Shipman.

"Many people will be surprised to hear this, and most would agree this needs to change," said Mr Burnham.

"A stronger assessment system will not only improve safety and boost public trust in doctors, it will also give all doctors the structure to develop and improve their skills throughout their careers."

Copyright ⌐ Press Association 2010