Beginning in April of 2009, the UK began requiring that all general practioners acquire a license to practice medicine. Intended to enhance professional accountability in the medical field, this license is now required in addition to the General Medical Council registration, and means changes are coming to the GP appraisal system. These changes will be collectively known as the revalidation process, which will combine both the relicensing and recertification process. Pilot programs are currently in progress and will be operating throughout 2010, with the overall goal of officially beginning the revalidation process in April of 2011.

If the pilot programs are successful, the general practitioners who participated in them will already be revalidated as of April of 2011. All other GPs will begin revalidation at that time, with all GPs coming up for the process within the next five years. If all goes well, by April of 2016 all general practitioners operating in the UK will be both licensed and certified, and will have provided evidence demonstrating their excellence and professionalism in established standards that they will likely already be familiar with from the GP appraisal system. These standards are set by the Royal College of General Practitioners, and can be found in their Guide to the Revalidation of General Practitioners.

Once the revalidation system is in place, GPs will be required to go through the renewal process every five years. As it now stands, revalidation will be a three step process; preparation of evidence, submission and assessment of evidence, and performance assessment. This third phase will not be required of all GPs, and is in place for those GPs whose evidence was not adequate to quickly warrant a revalidation recommendation from the RCGP. Already known as fitness to practice processes, these might also be familiar to GPs from the earlier GP appraisal model.

For those GPs who are approaching their next appraisal, it is advised by the RCGP to begin gathering evidence early. At the moment the only evidence required is that of the current GP appraisal system, as changes will not go into effect until 2011. Those requirements can be found in the Guide to the Revalidation of General Practitioners mentioned above. It’s also a good idea to keep up to speed with the latest progress of the revalidation pilot programs, so as to be prepared.