I’ve been involved in appraisal and revalidation since 2001/2, when consultant appraisal was introduced in Scotland. I have a very clear memory of the suspicion and outright fear that came from some quarters when being part of a team that toured around hospitals to explain what the object of the exercise was to be. It seemed very clear to some of us that a once per year chance to share what you were doing with an informed appraiser was a good idea, & if our feedback is correct, it has proved so here in Scotland.

The facility to have an online system, accessible to all doctors who practice in Scotland, combined with a cadre of appraisers who are trained to a very high standard, has proved to be a real bonus for all who work in our country. The decisions of the Revalidation Delivery Board for Scotland, set up to implement revalidation here, have meant that the profession has ownership of the processes, and whilst it will continue to improve on an iterative basis, the consensus is that it works well for our purposes. I have lost count of the number of times, both in UK and international meetings, someone from the audience has said “Why don’t we do it the way Scotland has?”, which always gives me a warm glow inside.

This report gives a summary of those iterative changes, to improve how the process is carried out and to continue to engage both appraisers and appraisees in improvements we make. Following the publication of Sir Keith Pearson’s review of revalidation, many work streams have been set up to look at how things can be improved from the point of view of – quality of appraisal, feedback from patients, and other issues detailed in this report. Some of you will notice that the report is now produced by NHS Education for Scotland instead of Healthcare Improvement for Scotland. This approach was another decision to streamline the oversight of the systems. I hope that you find it informative and helpful to you.

Prof Bill Reid, Lead for Medical Revalidation, NHS Education for Scotland