DOCTORS FACING ANNUAL ASSESSMENTS
All doctors in the UK face annual assessments which could see licences removed from poor performers.
The proposals mean GPs, hospital consultants and private practitioners would have to renew their licences every five years.
The plans will be outlined by the Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson.
He will call for senior doctors to assess others who are practising in their area, to make sure they are not putting their patients at risk.
The annual assessments will examine prescribing habits, adequate assessment of a patient's condition and any personal issues which might affect their work such as drug or alcohol abuse.
Patients will also be asked for their feedback as part of the doctors' assessment process.
The report, Medical Revalidation: Principle and Next Steps, will also suggest measures to ensure that doctors are keeping up to date with medical advances.
It is expected to say that regular assessment would raise standards among the 150,000 doctors practising in the UK, rather than being a method for discipline.
The assessments - known as revalidation - were first proposed by the General Medical Council as far back as 1998 as a way to win back the trust of the British public after a series of medical scandals.
Dr Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the British Medical Association, said almost all doctors already went through an annual appraisal, which examined their continuing education, and prescribing habits.
He said the new system would take this a stage further, but while it was important to demonstrate to patients that doctors were keeping up to date, it was also vital that the assessments did not become too burdensome.
He said: "We are anxious to see that any system is proportionate, that it does not take doctors unduly away from their patients, and that it is fair to doctors.
"But in principle we support the idea that doctors should be looking to improve themselves."
(Abridged from an article in the Daily Telegraph)
