This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
Listen
New appraisal scheme for hospital doctors
28/10/2002
A new appraisal scheme which aims to identify and meet
the development needs of Scotland's hospital doctors, and
improve the quality of patient care, was launched
today.
The scheme for non-consultant career grade doctors will
become a key part of the General Medical Council's
revalidation process under which doctors demonstrate that
they are fit to practice and follows similar new appraisal
systems for GPs and consultants.
Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm said:
"This new appraisal system is good news for doctors and
good news for patients. It will help staff identify and
meet their training and development needs, thereby
assisting career progression. Secondly by becoming part of
the revalidation process it will provide greater
re-assurance to patients about the standard of care they
will receive while they are in hospital.
"One key advantage of the system it is that is will be
applied nationally so that regardless of where doctors are
working - or whether they move from one part of the country
to another - they will be assessed in exactly the same
way."
John Carruthers, Chairman of the BMA's interim Scottish
Staff and Associate Specialists Committee said:
"We welcome the launch of this scheme. We believe that a
national appraisal scheme, uniformly applied, will be a
great driver for improvement in NHSScotland in years to
come."
The new appraisal scheme is the result of an agreement
with the BMA (Scotland) on a national appraisal system for
all non-consultant career grade doctors in Scotland. It
will apply to all hospital doctors except consultants and
those in training grade posts.
The overall aim of the scheme is to give doctors regular
feedback on past performance and their progress, and
identify any training and development needs to aid their
career development. By improving doctors' skills the system
will also help drive up standards of patient care.
The Scottish Executive launched appraisal for all
consultants last year.