See below for the Royal College of Emergency Medicine's collection of resources including: latest news, frequently asked questions, e-portfolio, general guidance and college information. Use the navigation tab below to navigate through these resources.
Revalidation is the way in which the General Medical Council (GMC) regulates licensed doctors, giving extra confidence to patients that their doctors are up to date and fit to practice. Licensed doctors will have to re-validate, usually every five years, by having regular appraisals that are based the GMC core guidance for doctors, Good Medical Practice. Revalidation will be introduced in December 2012, with the majority of licensed doctors being revalidated for the first time by the end of March 2016. Only doctors who have a licence to practice will need to re-validate.
The NHS Medical Revalidation Team in England has updated the Medical Appraisal Guide (MAG) (Apr 2016), read about the changes here. The Medical Appraisal Guide should be read in conjunction with GMC guidance setting out generic requirements for medical practice and appraisal, as well as guidance published by the AoMRC:
The Revalidation Guide for Emergency Medicine brings together key information regarding current revalidation requirements and processes in all four countries of the United Kingdom. It has been developed as a web-resource for Emergency Medicine (EM) doctors who may have queries about their revalidation. The guide advises on the requirements of revalidation which are current at the time of publication and will be subject to change as the GMC, the Department of Health, the NHS, the Academy and other partners update and amend their guidance. We will attempt to update our guide as the system matures.
Download the Revalidation Guide for Emergency Medicine
The Academy Of Medical Royal Colleges (AoMRC) has worked with the Medical Faculties and Colleges to produce a Specialty Guidance document. For ease of reference, the document gives generic guidance on supporting information required for annual appraisals and revalidation, followed by specialty specific guidance for those working in Emergency Medicine at the end of each section.
The GMC recommends that doctors in specialist practice should consult the supporting information guidance provided by their college or faculty. This guidance amplifies the headings provided by the GMC, by providing additional detail about the GMC requirements and what each college or faculty expects relating to this, based on their specialty expertise. These expectations are laid out under ‘Requirements’. Further descriptive information is given under the heading “Guidance.”
There is also a short reference checklist you can use to assist you.
The GMC has produced Patient and Colleague Feedback Forms for general use. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine is recommending that our members and fellows use these templates if none are provided by their employing organisations. Please see the links below for the Patient and Colleague Questionnaires and guidance documents for using them:
A template to assist with legibility and clarity of Doctors’ record keeping for Appraisal can be found here:
Guidance on reflective practice can be found at the links below:
GMC guidance for leaders of designated bodies and other organisations involved in developing and maintaining the effectiveness of clinical governance arrangements for doctors and their revalidation:
Myth-buster guidance, aimed primarily at the individual doctor but is relevant to everyone involved in appraisal and revalidation, including the appraiser and the responsible officer, and dispels some of the confusion and clarifies recommendations and requirements:
The following guide is aimed at healthcare practitioners whose employer or contracting body (referred to as ‘healthcare organisation’) has made contact with NHS Resolution’s Practitioner Performance Advice service (formerly known as National Clinical Assessment Service):
RCEM works with the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges to provide specialty-specific information for use in the revalidation of doctors in Emergency Medicine. This task is undertaken by the Sustainable Working Practices Committee, under the direction of Dr Sunil Dasan.
The Committee monitors the procedures and effectiveness of revalidation as the system matures, and seeks to develop specialty advice for doctors to use in appraisal. The remit of the Committee includes:
If you have any specific queries, please email revalidation@rcem.ac.uk
GMC Connect allows the GMC to transfer and share data and information securely. It has been developed to support responsible officers (ROs). Responsible Officers will be authorised to make revalidation recommendations. The GMC has published a protocol which is a GMC guide for responsible officers (ROs) about revalidation recommendations.
Further details about information sharing principles can be found here.
Please note that with effect from 1 April 2017, access to the revalidation portfolio ceased to be available for free to new users. However, existing users, Members or Fellows already registered and actively using the revalidation portfolio are welcome to continue using the resource until 30 September 2017.
After 30 September 2017, access to your revalidation portfolio account and portfolio content through RCEM will be discontinued. You will however, be able to continue to access your account by subscribing directly to Equiniti or opt out and extract any content that you wish to retain.
All Members and Fellows will still have the option to use the revalidation portfolio, as part of the Revalidation Management System (RMS), by paying a fee directly to Equiniti at a reduced rate of £100 + VAT per annum. Please contact Equiniti directly for further information .
Should you elect to be removed completely from the revalidation portfolio, please inform Equiniti and notify RCEM by email at revalidation@rcem.ac.uk, ensuring you extract any documentation or data that you wish to retain by 30 September 2017.
Your revalidation portfolio data will be held by Equiniti for 7 years after 30 September 2017 in compliance with data retention and protection processes before being securely destroyed, unless you instruct Equiniti otherwise.
The revalidation management system, incorporating the revalidation portfolio, is used by a number of Trusts/designated bodies under separate and independent contract arrangements. Therefore, Members and Fellows with such arrangements in place will continue to access the revalidation management system through their Trust.
If you have any queries, please feel free to contact revalidation@rcem.ac.uk
Following a review of assessment tools and feedback, a number of changes have been introduced since November 2018 to ensure continued provision of an effective service that better meets the need of users. A new model of assessment, which focuses on clinical performance, has been developed and is being trialled with a view to it coming into effect in due course. Further information about the service can be found at the NHS Resolution website and brief details about assessment are in these Practitioner Performance Advice Assessment FAQs.
The Academy of the Medical Royal Colleges (AoMRC), the UK Conference of Postgraduate Medical Deans (COPMeD), the General Medical Council (GMC), and the Medical Schools Council (MSC) have jointly developed and published new guidance on reflective practice. The full document, the summary and the toolkit can be downloaded from here.
After 30 September 2017, access to your revalidation portfolio account and portfolio content through RCEM will be discontinued. You will however, be able to continue to access your account by subscribing directly to Equiniti or opt out and remove any content if you need to retain it.
The GMC revised guidance was formally launched on 23 April 2013. Eight pieces of explanatory guidance have also been published, along with updated online learning materials linked to the guidance. See more here.
It is expected that the majority of licensed Emergency Medicine doctors in the UK will have been revalidated by 2016. Revalidation aims to give patients and the public, as well as employers and other healthcare professionals, extra confidence that doctors are up to date and fit to practice. All licensed doctors will need to revalidate on a regular basis (usually every five years) in order to keep their licence to practice.
The College is working hard to provide members with information to assist Emergency Doctors in revalidation. To use the portfolio, all Members and Fellows must ensure that their personal information is correct on the RCEM website. If it is not, they will not be able to register. Please login and check or change your personal details, such as your employer, email or postal address.
A Revalidation Helpdesk is now available at the College. If you have any questions about revalidation please email them to revalidation@rcem.ac.uk.
For general information about revalidation please go to the GMC website.
Announcement of medical appraisal for revalidation in the UK from December (19 October, 2012) – NEWLY UPDATED 08 JUNE 2022.
The Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced today that from 3 December 2012, revalidation of doctors in the UK will commence. This represents a step forward in both the effective regulation of doctors and the creation in law of further measures to improve quality and safety of care across the entire health sector. Medical revalidation, and the associated mandatory requirements for individual licensed doctors, responsible officers and designated bodies, will provide additional assurance to patients and should improve confidence in the quality and safety of the services commissioned and provided for them. For further information about the GMC announcement please visit the GMC website.
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine together with other colleges and the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges have agreed with the GMC a series of Frequently Asked Questions.
Emergency Medicine doctors may have many questions about the revalidation process and how it will affect them. We have developed “frequently asked questions” to go some way toward answering those questions; we welcome further queries however, so please do contact our helpdesk at revalidation@rcem.ac.uk.
Resources, tools and guidance on Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
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Credentialing is a process whereby individuals provide evidence to demonstrate that they have achieved defined competencies.
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The RCEM online educational platform and resource for the Emergency Medicine community.
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