Report from "Revalidation in the Independent Sector", 24th November 2009
A large well attended meeting was held on 24th November at the Royal College of Physicians, in London at which all aspects of Revalidation in the Independent Sector were discussed. There are many challenges ahead and at this stage many unanswered questions.
view a detailed summary of this conference
The presentations are available to review online, follow the links associated with each presenter's name.
Professor Peter Rubin
Chairman of the GMC
Professor Peter Rubin, Chairman of the GMC outlined the main challenges ahead for revalidation. Many problems exist but Professor Rubin was keen to emphasise that there are already good systems of governance and appraisal in many institutions and these should continue. The whole process will be a gradual evolution rather than a "big bang" .occurrence.
View Presentation from Professor Peter Rubin
Dr Keith Judkins
Medical Director NHS Revalidation Support Team
Dr Keith Judkins Medical Director NHS Revalidation Support Team gave a detailed account of SMA (Strengthened Medical Appraisal). The practicalities of this and the methods of “accrediting” appraisers are largely unresolved.
View Presentation from Dr Keith Judkins
Royal Colleges
There then followed three presentations from the Academy of Royal Colleges (Dr Judith Hulf), The Royal College of Physicians (Dr Ian Starke) and the Royal College of Surgeons (Professor Tony Narula). Each talk reinforced the complexity of the process of SMA (Strengthened Medical Appraisal) and raised questions of multisource feedback, core data and sub-specialist requirements for appraisal and the need for pilot studies. There are clearly problems in defining the required data, the training of sufficient appraisers and the degree to which various Royal College will be involved with whole process once it is set up.
View Presentation from Academy of Royal Colleges (Dr Judith Hulf)
View Presentation from The Royal College of Physicians (Dr Ian Starke)
View Presentation from The Royal College of Surgeons (Professor Tony Narula)
Mr Michael Wright of the
Clinical Governance Team, Department of Health
Mr Michael Wright of the Clinical Governance Team, Department of Health then described the role of the responsible officer and explained that the legislation is currently out for consultation but should be enacted in to law by parliament early in 2010, with all responsible officers in post by November 2010. There was some discussion about which responsible officer consultants would report to but at the moment all NHS consultants with a private practice will report to their Trust responsible officer. Purely independent consultants with practising privileges in an acute independent hospital will report to the independent hospital where they carry out most work.
View Presentation from Mr Michael Wright
Mr Stephen Collier, of the
BMI Hospital Group
Mr Stephen Collier, of the BMI Hospital Group, gave a detailed description of the governance systems within that group and explained how the generic hospital level data will gradually become available at individual consultant level. He explained some of the legal issues surrounding the ownership of the data and discussed how this will also feed in to the issue of renewal of practising privileges for consultants working in independent hospitals.
View Presentation from Mr Stephen Collier
Mr Gareth Jones of
Dr Foster
Mr Gareth Jones of Dr Foster described the work that is going on within that group to refine the generic data they receive from the independent sector hospitals on clinical governance. The Hellenic Project is a method being developed to align the sector with the NHS. He illustrated how such data may be made available to individual consultants for appraisal although there is some work to be done before this gaol is realised.
View Presentation from Mr Gareth Jones
Baroness Barbara Young,
Chairman of the Care Quality Commission (CQC)
Baroness Barbara Young, Chairman of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) described the role of the CQC in the general governance processes and stated that although the CQC would be working to support revalidation by ensuring that the processes were in place to enable this it would not become involved with the appraisal system itself nor would it regulate individuals or responsible officers.
View Presentation from Baroness Barbara Young
original programme & agenda
more on the subject of revalidation