RCGP Invitation to submit Expressions of Interest for the Piloting of Revalidation for General Practitioners - 15 Dec 08

Source

The Royal College of General Practitioners is inviting expressions of interest from UK university academic departments  for the piloting of the feasibility of the proposed evidence for revalidation of general practitioners, together with alternative sources of evidence and methods for assessment of the folders of evidence.  It is anticipated that the pilot timescale will be seven months, commencing in spring 2009, with final reports required by October 2009.
The budget available is in the region of £200,000.
Expressions of interest are invited by 30 December 2008.

Background
The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) has a mandate to develop and quality assure the standards for recertification of all doctors on the General Practitioner register, as part of the revalidation process for all doctors which is planned for introduction as a UK wide initiative in 2010.

Subsequent to the publication of Trust, Assurance and Safety - The Regulation of Health Professionals in the 21st Century, developed as a response to Dame Janet Smith’s FIFTH REPORT Safeguarding Patients: Lessons from the Past - Proposals for the Future it has become policy that all doctors should be revalidated (relicensed and recertified) every five years with effect from the expected implementation date of 2010. The General Medical Council (GMC) will be responsible for relicensing but the appropriate Medical Royal College will be responsible for recommending the standards for recertification. In the case of the RCGP it will be responsible for setting the standards for all UK general practitioners on the General Practitioners register, whatever their working circumstances.

The regulatory framework for revalidation has now become much clearer, with the publication of Medical Revalidation – Principles and Next Steps - The Report of the Chief Medical Officer for England’s Working Group, in July 2008, and  the Department of Health, General Medical Council and Medical Royal Colleges  have been working closely on the detail of implementation. The RCGP has now developed its proposals to a stage where pilots can be carried out to assess their feasibility.
 
There are approximately 55,000 GPs on the General Practitioner Register, of which about 36,000 are members of the RCGP. All of these doctors will be given a license to practice by the General Medical Council in autumn 2009, they will all need to revalidate within the following 5 years. The challenge to RCGP will be threefold; accommodating the large numbers involved, engaging with non members, and designing a system which will  be applicable to the diversity of employment situations of GPs but will be as simple and streamlined as possible and will not put a larger burden onto GPs compared with other specialties.    

The Revalidation Pilots
Revalidation for general practitioners will be introduced in 2010. In preparation for this, the RCGP has been working with key partners – the General Medical Council, the General Practitioners Committee of the British Medical Association, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and the Departments of Health – to prepare for its roles.

The pilots will be undertaken in partnership with the General Medical Council and other stakeholders and funded by the Department of Health (England).

We are seeking a proposal to undertake the pilot work from a university academic department which is well versed in the needs of primary care.

The pilot proposals are as set out in the attached document Proposals for Revalidation Pilots: RCGP, November 2008 (Appendix 1) and consist of three interrelated pilots to assess the feasibility of:-
1. The generation of folders of evidence for revalidation (including phased introduction)
2.  Alternative and supplementary sources of evidence for revalidation
3. The assessment of revalidation folders

The RCGP strategy for revalidation is set out in the further document Revalidation for General Practitioners A Consultation Document (Appendix 2) which is also attached for information.

Expressions of Interest

These should include an outline of:

• Your strategy for developing, implementing and feeding back on the pilots within the proposed timescale including detail of organisation of the project
• Your proposed reporting structure and interface with RCGP
• Details of the key staff responsible for managing and inputting into the project, their experience  and achievements
• Expected resource requirements and estimated costs
• A proposed timeline
• A Quality Plan
• Together with Examples of relevant similar work undertaken with contact names of referees for these pieces of work
• A statement with respect to intellectual property rights
• Your organisational and financial status 
• A statement of any perceived conflicts of interest
• Expressions of interest  should be submitted by 30 December 2008   to Ethan Cuthbert at RCGP ecuthbert@rcgp.org.uk
• A process of competitive tendering will be launched in January 2009 and the deadline for tenders is expected to be 15 February 2009.

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