Revalidation in primary care – a personal view

The General Dental Council, in response to Government instruction, is working on plans to introduce Revalidation for the profession from about 2014.1 The General Medical Council introduced Revalidation in 2012. The Department of Health, in 2008, defined Revalidation as:

“…ensure that health professionals remain up to date and continue to demonstrate that they continue to meet the requirements of their professional regulator”2

The General Dental Council defines it as:

“…the means by which, in the future, registrants will be required to periodically demonstrate that they are up to date and compliant with our Standards for Dental Professionals”3

The GDC, like the GMC, suggests that the appropriate cycle for Revalidation should be 5 years. It has advocated a 3-stage approach to Revalidation which follows the model used by the Canadian physicians4 and other healthcare groups (Table 1). The Canadian approach suggests that the process should be formative and benefit the registrant. It is believed that most registrants will be able to revalidate at Stage 1. The GDC, in its proposals in 2010, suggested that external verifiers are needed to assess evidence to recommend revalidation.5 Those working in salaried dental services, eg hospitals and community dental services, armed forces, already have appraisals and clinical performance management, and so an employee should be able to demonstrate that he/she is fit for Revalidation based on his/her annual review. The challenge is how primary dental care practitioners (NHS and independent), who do not normally have a formal review, can, in a timely cost-effective way, demonstrate that they meet the standards and so Revalidate.