General Medical Council Governance handbook
The GMC has published a revised handbook for organisations that employ, contract or oversee the practice of doctors in the UK: Effective clinical governance for the medical profession.
Designed as a helpful guide for leaders of healthcare organisations, it outlines the role that boards and governing bodies should play in ensuring effective clinical governance for doctors and how this can contribute to high quality patient care.
The handbook provides clearer advice about clinical governance processes for doctors including annual appraisal, managing concerns about doctors and pre-employment checks.
The guide was first published in 2013, shortly after the introduction of revalidation – the process through which doctors show they’re giving good patient care and fit to practise. The changes address Sir Keith Pearson’s recommendation in his 2017 report Taking revalidation forward that the handbook should reflect learning and system developments from the first five years of revalidation.
Eight other organisations across the UK including system regulators, system leads, and improvement bodies have worked together to update the handbook to ensure it’s applicable to the variety of different settings in which a doctor might work.
You can read the revised handbook on the GMC Website.