By Gareth Iacobucci
The GMC has pledged to ‘simplify and streamline' its proposals for revalidation in a bid to satisfy the Government's demand for a slimmed-down scheme that will reduce bureaucracy for GPs.
It comes after Pulse revealed last week that the Department of Health is planning to substantially scale back revalidation in light of concerns over the onerous and costly nature of the process, with the GMC proposing to halve the amount of multi-source feedback GPs are asked to collect.
The GMC has now indicated that it will make additional moves to reduce the burden on GPs, including specifying that they should not spend more than a few hours of their time on their annual appraisal.
It also pledged to scrutinise all supporting information required by each specialty, to help reduce the workload required.
The moves are being tabled following the conclusion of the GMC's widespread consultation on the controversial plans, that received a record 940 written responses.
The Council said it would flesh out its recommendations this autumn when it had closely reviewed all responses to the consultation.
Chief executive Niall Dickson said: ‘We recognise that the direction in which we seek to go is to streamline. There is no ambition to create something that is bureaucratic and burdensome. My guess is we will move towards less supporting information required.'
GMC chair Professor Peter Rubin said there was a need to clarify the amount of time GPs should be spending on their appraisal.
He said: ‘We want the process leading up to appraisal to be pragmatic and effective. We're just talking about an hour or two [in preparation], and then an hour or two for the appraisal itself. We don't want some huge box-ticking exercise.'
GMC chief executive Niall Dickson GMC chief executive Niall Dickson
