The law now requires that all doctors practising medicine in the UK must be registered
with the GMC and have a license to practise. This is the first step towards the
revalidation of doctors, and issuing these licenses has provided a clear signal
that revalidation has begun.
Revalidation will be a continuous five-year process and will present many practical
challenges to employers of doctors as they ensure that they have the capacity in
place to enable delivery at a pace that is in keeping with the expectations of the
GMC. For the responsible officer it means ensuring that systems of local clinical
governance, quality assurance and appraisal are sufficiently robust to facilitate
revalidation.
