New Appraisal System Must Be Good For Patients And Fair To Doctors, Says British Medical Association Leader

Main Category: Primary Care / General Practice
Article Date: 24 Jul 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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The Chief Medical Officer's (CMO) report for appraising and revalidating doctors, launched yesterday (Wednesday 23 July 2008), was given cautious backing by the BMA.

Chairman of the BMA, Dr Hamish Meldrum, said:

"The BMA is supportive of plans to appraise doctors in order to develop and improve their skills. However, it is essential that the CMO's proposals are not unduly burdensome for doctors and result in them having to spend less time with patients. It is vital that the new system is good for patients and fair to doctors.

"The vast majority of doctors are dedicated to providing high quality care to their patients. It is important that these proposals are not used to weed out the minority of doctors who are under-performing - there are other processes in place to do this.

"The BMA does have some concerns about the timescales for piloting and implementation and we could not accept a situation where certain specialities were chosen for early roll out, simply because it was considered easier to progress with them first."

Source:
Franca Tranza
British Medical Association
BMA House
Tavistock Square
London
WC1H 9JP
http://www.bma.org.uk