All doctors on a Performers List in the NHS are required to undertake annual appraisal.
It is your responsibility to prepare for appraisal by providing the required supporting information, and to make yourself available for an appraisal which will usually last around two hours.
Providing appraisal supporting information is intended to be an educational process, allowing in-depth reflection on aspects of personal practice each year.
Doctors who undertake OOH work in addition to another role such as "daytime GP" should expect their appraisal to include reflection on their OOH work - as part of the "whole practice" appraisal process - including a review of its quality and educational needs.
Following reflection and discussion with your appraiser, a Form 4 summary is drafted and this will contribute to the GMC revalidation process to renew your licence.
The additional information in this section is supplementary guidance to the main toolkit.
OOH doctors are encouraged to use similar supporting information for reflection at their appraisal as GP Principals and salaried doctors working in a practice.
If you work as a Sessional GP who also undertakes OOH work, you should reference the sessional GPs section of the toolkit for some of your supporting information. You can use any of the tools in it if they are relevant to your OOH work.
However, you will find examples in this section which give you ideas on how you might use existing tools in a different way, and some alternative ideas.
These can be used by any doctor who undertakes work in the OOH service.
Whenever possible, try to form an association with a group of peers. In these groups it will usually be possible to use tools and examples designed for group work which have the clear advantage of allowing you to reflect with colleagues, learn with them, and get external feedback on the quality of what you are doing.
It is well worth asking the OOH organisation for which you work whether they can help you to set up such a group. They should be able to provide you with a venue, and to help you to gather data and materials related to the work you do for the group to study. They may also be able to involve Health Board personnel such as pharmacists to give input on your prescribing, or an audit facilitator to help you to undertake audit work as a group.
We recognise this isn't always possible, but this toolkit should give ideas for what you can do when collaboration and support aren't readily available to you.
This page was last updated on: 11/11/2024
