Spectator letters: In defence of the GMC and Ukip members, and how Rachmaninov spelled Rachmaninov | 23 October 2014

Health check

Sir: I have to take issue on (at least) three counts with Dr Vernon Coleman and his absurd suggestion that the GMC should be abolished (‘Get rid of the GMC’, 18 October). I administer the annual appraisal and revalidation process at an acute hospital. First, revalidation of licensed doctors is based on an evidence-based annual appraisal which is designed to demonstrate that doctors are up to date and fit to practise — surely not too much to ask? It takes the average doctor about five hours each year to complete the ‘reams of forms’.

Secondly, the colleague and patient ‘report forms’ are required once during the five-year revalidation cycle — and to ensure credible and candid comment is received, the doctor must have no direct part in collecting and analysing it.

Thirdly, revalidation was not the invention of the GMC (lay that at the door of the Department of Health), and its design took almost 20 years before the British Medical Association would agree that something was better than nothing.