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Letter of the week: Revalidation was the wrong answer to the wrong question

Revalidation was always the wrong answer to the wrong question.

The two questions that matter are (1) how can we keep a look-out for poorly performing doctors, and (2) how can we help everyone be the best they can be? These are two quite different questions, which will (obviously enough) have different answers.

Revalidation was supposed to be the answer to the question ‘how do we restore public faith in doctors after Shipman and Bristol?' Wrong question. We never lost the public's trust, as every opinion poll shows.

This was opportunism by the RCGP and others with an agenda to control doctors for political ends. The Government should scrap revalidation now, replace appraisal with a mandatory personal development plan and spend the money saved on providing proper clinical education.

Response to: Government shelves revalidation rollout

From Dr Stephen Hayes, Southampton

RCGP More letters

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