An update about revalidation and renewing your licence

This section attempts to explain the changes that are happening as concerns the UK licensing of doctors.

As you know the present system for doctors registered with the GMC is:

1. If you are on the GMC medical register you get a GMC number that enables you to work as a doctor in the UK. You renew the registration each year by paying a bill to the GMC.

2. If you are on the GMC specialist register you can apply for Consultant jobs within your speciality.

3. You should have an 'appraisal' discussion once a year to plan for your educational and developmental needs and to discuss your professional role during the last year. You should keep a record of these discussions as they will be needed when the GMC start the revalidation process they have been promising for the last few years.

The new system will work as follows:

1. To practice medicine in the UK you will need to be registered with the GMC (see above) and have a licence to practice. All doctors on the GMC register at present will be offered a licence to practice and will have to be revalidated when the GMC start doing this (revalidation= having your licence/specialist registration renewed). So, if you want to carry on working in the UK say yes to having a registration and a licence to practise when asked by the GMC. The same applies to those wishing to remain on the specialist register.

2. Revalidation is getting closer so remember to keep a note of your activity (that is notes of what operations you have done as a surgeon, what anaesthetics as a anaesthetist etc.) and what courses you have been on, how many new out-patients and how many follow-up out-patients you have seen. Keep a record of how many complaints you have had, if any, what they were about and how you have dealt with them. Then when it is time for your yearly appraisal you can present all this to show that you are an active, up to date doctor that is ready for revalidation.

The GMC have also left open the option of being registered and not having a licence but this will only be worthwhile for a small minority of doctors in non clinical posts.

It will be interesting to see what the EU does about all of this as it seems to go against the principles of the free flow of workers from one country to another. However, we will have to wait and see until the first case goes to the European Courts.

From our point of view we would like you all to continue with your registration and licence and come over to work in the UK. If not, perhaps we can help you find work in Ireland,  Scandinavia, New Zealand, the Middle East or why not on a nice desert island somewhere far away from all this.