Doctors have to be revalidated. In other words, they have to regain GMC approval to practice. This is a result of the Government’s decision to have a revalidation process beginning from the end of this year. I understand that the revalidation will need to be reviewed every five years, which whilst being an irritation to many already over-worked doctors, will be a relief that at least it will not be an annual process. A part of the RDR (Retail Distribution Review) is that advisers must effectively attain an annual Statement of Professional Standing certificate, provided by one of a few organisations licensed as a provider.

Doctors will get six months notice of their revalidation dates. The GMC have advised that revalidation dates for currently licensed doctors would likely be within the next three years to March 2016, with this possibly stretched over a five-year period for trainees.

Whilst there is clearly merit in ensuring that skills and competence is maintained and kept up to date, one does begin to wonder if we have simply created more form-filling and form vetting jobs without actually ensuring any significant improvements. This isn’t just an issue for doctors or financial advisers, similar principles are being adopted in many fields. I suspect that the cost of all this validation is fairly significant. I have tremendous respect for doctors, but I really don’t believe that revalidation will make any difference to the confidence I have in them and I imagine that my SPS will not provide greater confidence in me.

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