Welcome to the NHS Revalidation Support Team (RST)

Preparation for revalidation

Revalidation started on 3 December 2012. The GMC is now beginning to revalidate licensed doctors, starting with medical leaders and responsible officers.

The majority of licensed doctors are expected to have been revalidated by March 2016. If you hold a licence to practise, you are now legally required to revalidate, usually every five years, by having a regular appraisal based on the GMC's core guidance for doctors, Good Medical Practice.

If you successfully revalidate, this means you can continue to hold a licence to practise. Please visit the GMC’s revalidation pages for further detail.

As a doctor, you should:

• set up a GMC Online account
• identify your responsible officer (through your GMC Online account)
• take part in regular appraisal, as provided under the supervision of your responsible officer. Your responsible officer will clarify what format of appraisal is acceptable locally, for example whether you should use the RST's MAG Model Appraisal Form. Your appraisal should:
• cover all of your professional practice
• be based on the GMC Good Medical Practice Framework for appraisal and revalidation
• include information about your practice, as set out by the GMC in Supporting information for appraisal and revalidation. This should include: previous appraisal summaries, CPD records, quality improvement (e.g. audit outcomes), significant events, patient and colleague feedback, and complaints/compliments
• through your responsible officer, establish what the local arrangements are for the collection of patient and colleague feedback. GMC advice on this can be found here
• familiarise yourself with the specialty guidance of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges