A survey of responsible officers in London by The King’s Fund has found that just under half were positive about their experience of revalidation.
The survey of 53 of London’s 133 responsible officers found that 10% were negative about their experience whilst the remaining 40% said that they reserved judgement on revalidation ahead of year two, which they believed would be ‘trickier’.
Those surveyed highlighted the fact that performance concerns not experienced in the first year would surface in the second year when they would have to revalidate some of the less engaged and more challenging doctors with performance issues.
Their greatest concern for the second year lay with the cost of and resourcing necessary to provide remediation.
Vijaya Nath, assistant director in leadership development at The King’s Fund and the report’s author, said: ‘For revalidation to be more than a tick-box exercise that takes place every five years it needs to become a process that doctors value and therefore actively engage with.
‘The key to achieving this is to build on the potential for revalidation to increase quality and transparency for patients by making their feedback and experience integral to the process - in many cases this will require further work.’
The survey also found that responsible officers felt that further work to capture patient feedback and experience as part of the revalidation process is needed to support the ability to respond effectively to concerns that arise.
