(Revalidation in the United Kingdom: general principles based on experience in general practice)

(Revalidation is the answer)

A collection of articles in this week's BMJ , pp 1180 - 92, describe the processes of revalidation in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands. Professor Lesley Southgate and RCGP Chairman Dr Mike Pringle outline their proposals for how the British system might work using the example of general practitioners. A local process involving both peers and lay people is envisaged.

In an editorial, Graham Buckley, executive director of the Scottish Council for Postgraduate Medical and Dental Education says that British medicine is coming rather late to an acceptance of revalidation. Buckley argues that revalidation will have a profound effect on the practice of medicine but that hard effort will be required to prevent it becoming an empty chore.