Viewpoint on revalidation: Professor William Roche

Professor William Roche, FMLM regional lead for the South of England and former NHS South of England revalidation lead, talks to FMLM about his views on the value and impact of revalidation and on FMLM’s role as a designated body.

How important do you think revalidation is in the current climate?

Revalidation is very important in terms of ongoing healthcare improvements and helps justify the great  trust that the public has in the medical profession. Doctors can demonstrate that they’re up to date, that they have regular appraisals, and that someone reviews their practice and all that they do once every five years. Moreover, a statutory declaration is made about them. 

And how do you think revalidation will improve medical leadership in particular?

I think revalidation will do this in a number of ways:

Firstly, revalidation emphasizes the importance of medical leadership and strengthens the hierarchy for all doctors. Revalidation requires that everyone relates to someone else; part of that relationship is a leadership relationship.

Secondly, revalidation provides support and a discussion forum for medical leaders. Medical leadership can be very lonely and there are times when they have to make very difficult decisions. Revalidation means that there are networks of responsible officers from whom medical leaders can learn and with whom they can bounce ideas.

Revalidation also allows doctors at leadership level to reflect on the quality of their own leadership while they review their own revalidation portfolio.