News and Events

The Scottish Government sponsored MARQA (Medical Appraisal and Revalidation Quality Assurance) review was postponed allowing for workforce recovery. Similarly, there were no Responsible Officers development days organised this year.

There continues to be an emphasis on Health and Wellbeing with the introduction of resources for stress and burnout as we are still navigating post pandemic ways of working. You can find information and links on the Medical Appraisal Scotland website

Updated Medical Appraisal Scotland website

In April 2022 we rolled out the updated Medical Appraisal website, with the aim of reducing duplication in both the guides and the information that we provide, thereby (hopefully) making the site easier to navigate. We are also continuing to add to our growing Resources to help support both new and existing Appraisers.

Recognition of Trainers support

One of the regular requests for additional refresher sessions we received was for the Recognition of Trainer (RoT) element of appraisals and in response to this we ran a webinar on 22 March 2023. This session was delivered by Drs Lesley Dawson (Director of Medical Education NHS Lothian) and Ben Ulyatt (Associate Director of Medical Education NHS Tayside), facilitated by Dr Christiane Shrimpton (Associate Postgraduate Dean NES). You can find the recorded session and Summary points on the Medical Appraisal Scotland website

There is also now a module that covers the appraisal requirements for RoT that we have developed for the new appraiser training. It can be accessed on the Medical Appraisal Scotland website

This would also be useful for established appraisers as a refresher session.

Review of GMC Good Medical Practice

As you may be aware, the GMC’s Good Medical Practice review has been taking place for a while and if you haven’t seen it yet, you can find the details on the GMC website

The draft version is due out in June, with the full version due later in the autumn.

The publication of this will be used to inform the further development of SOAR.

Support for Appraisal Leads and Appraisal Admins

NES organised two National Appraisal Leads meeting via MS Teams on 30 August 2022 and 07 March 2023 respectively. Both meetings were very well attended and received.

The meeting in August covered several topics, most notably issues that emerged during Covid where doctors are increasingly working remotely and challenges undertaking PSQ. The March meeting included discussion of electronic methods of PSQ.

For the National Appraisal Admin teams' group, NES organised four “coffee morning” style catch up meetings on 01 June 2022, 01 September 2022, 30 November 2022 and 22 February 2023. These informal meetings proved a useful platform for both new and existing members to network with one another and allowed us to explain NES’ role in supporting the group.

Team Changes

Known as the “Richard Gere of West Port” as some from the Edinburgh office will fondly remember, Professor Amjad Khan’s calm personality and unwavering support for medical appraisal has been instrumental in steering us through the pandemic. Sadly, Professor Khan has called time on his illustrious 37-year dedication to the NHS and will be retiring at the end of June 2023. When Professor Khan joined NES back in 2015, he brought with him a wealth of experience that we were able to draw upon. His welcoming manner and positive approach will be greatly missed.

Amjad, thank you for everything and from all of us, we wish you a long, healthy and happy retirement.

We are delighted to welcome Mandie Thrippleton to the team, who joined us on a one-year contract from 1st November 2022, taking up the role of Medical Appraisal Administrator. Her role has recently been extended until end of March 2024 and we are thrilled she is able to continue to support us in the delivery of appraiser training and SOAR helpdesk.

Stacey Lucas (Medical Appraisal Administrator) returned to the Medical Appraisal team in April 2023 after 1-year secondment as Senior Officer in NMAHP. We are delighted to have Stacey back in the team - welcome back Stacey!

Pamela Curran (Medical Senior Officer) h(Medical Senior Officer) has now been with us for almost a year on secondment. Pamela has settled in well and has been a great asset to the team, bringing her vast knowledge and experience from her previous role as Appraisal Administrator in NHS Ayrshire and Arran. We are delighted to announce that Pamela’s role with the team has been made permanent and her appointment will provide us with much needed stability in training and service provision.