Frequently asked questions

Any doctor registered with the GMC and holding a licence to practise, anywhere in the world. There are no geographical restrictions — I appraise NHS consultants, locums, GPs, SAS doctors, and newly qualified doctors alike.

Entirely online, via Microsoft Teams or Google Meet — whichever you prefer. There's no need to travel or attend in person.

You can choose between the 2022 MAG form or an online appraisal portal, depending on what your designated body or organisation uses. If you're unsure, get in touch and I can help confirm.

A standard appraisal is £550. A short-notice appraisal — for appointments needed within 48 hours — is £700. REV form completion is available as a £50 add-on alongside a booked appraisal. See the Fees & Booking page for full details.

Standard appraisals can be booked according to availability shown on the booking calendar. If you need an appraisal within 48 hours, the short-notice service is available at £700, covering both the appraisal meeting and your completed outputs.

Weekdays from 5:00 PM to 10:00 PM, and weekends and bank holidays from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM — designed to fit around clinical commitments.

Payment is taken securely online via Stripe at the time of booking. You'll receive confirmation and joining details once payment is complete.

Very much so. I particularly enjoy supporting doctors who are new to the appraisal process, and I aim to make the meeting straightforward, supportive, and free of unnecessary anxiety.

Let's clear this up immediately: appraisal is not a pass/fail event. It's a supportive, developmental review designed to help you look back at your year, recognise your strengths, and map out your professional growth. You cannot "fail" an appraisal — the only way to encounter regulatory issues is by failing to engage with the process at all.

No. Appraisers don't have the authority to make revalidation recommendations or affect your licence. My role is to help you put together your portfolio, facilitate a constructive discussion, and write a summary. The statutory responsibility rests with your Responsible Officer (RO), who reviews your evidence of engagement before making a recommendation to the GMC.

While the GMC sets the rules, you are ultimately responsible for ensuring you undergo an annual appraisal. Because your roles change, you'll need to find your "designated body" via the legal hierarchy defined by the GMC — usually your main agency, an NHS trust where you do most of your work, or a Suitable Person. Keep this connection updated on your GMC Online account.

No, but you do need to declare your whole scope of practice — informing your appraiser of all the locations and capacities in which you've worked as a licensed doctor since your last review. Rather than overwhelming yourself with paperwork for every shift, focus on representative examples that show you're keeping up to date and practising safely across all your roles.

Absolutely not. The driving principle is quality over quantity — the GMC doesn't mandate a rigid minimum number of CPD points or certificates for revalidation. Rather than logging every journal article you glance at, select the learning activities that were genuinely valuable to your practice, reflect briefly on what you learned, and discuss how it affects your patient care.

Over your five-year revalidation cycle, you'll need to collect, reflect on, and discuss:

• Continuing Professional Development (CPD): activities that maintain and enhance your skills
• Quality Improvement Activity (QIA): case reviews, prescribing audits, or clinical outcome discussions
• Significant events: any unexpected or unintended incidents that could have harmed, or did harm, a patient
• Patient feedback: formally collected feedback from those you care for, at least once per cycle
• Colleague feedback: multi-source feedback from doctors and non-doctor colleagues alike, at least once per cycle
• Compliments and complaints: a transparent log of formal complaints and positive feedback

If you're a locum and haven't been involved in any significant events or received formal complaints, you simply make a declaration to that effect at your appraisal.

Reflection shouldn't be a creative writing exercise, and it doesn't need to be long. A good reflective entry can be brief — just answer three simple questions: what happened or what you learned; how it's influenced your day-to-day practice; and what your next steps are. If a learning activity simply reinforced that you're already doing the right thing, that's perfectly valid reflection too — log it as confirmation of good practice.

You don't need a permanent, static team to collect valid multi-source feedback. The GMC expects your colleague feedback to reflect your whole scope of practice across your five-year cycle. When you run your formal feedback exercise (required once every five years), select a representative sample of people you've interacted with during your placements — peers, junior doctors, nurses, allied healthcare professionals, even administrative staff who coordinate your shifts. The key is impartiality: choose a range of colleagues who can speak honestly to your professionalism and performance, even if you only worked with them for a few weeks.

You have a strict obligation to declare and reflect on all formal complaints made about you or your practice. Clinical governance structures are supposed to communicate these issues across organisations, but as a locum, it pays to be proactive — ask the clinical governance or medical personnel leads at your frequent placements whether there are any recorded concerns against your name. If a complaint does arise, bring it to your appraisal rather than holding back. The appraisal is exactly the place to demonstrate your transparency, your insight into what happened, and any corrective action you've taken.

Potentially, yes. The core purpose of revalidation is to assure the UK public that you're fit to practise in the UK, so the bulk of your supporting information should come from your UK practice. That said, your Responsible Officer has discretion to accept evidence from overseas practice if it meets the same standards and is relevant to your licensed UK role. If you attend conferences abroad or take part in an overseas medical mission, log it — just include a concise reflective note on how those insights translate into your UK clinical practice.

Not at all. A PDP is a dynamic, forward-looking tool, not a restrictive contract. The GMC simply requires that you either make progress with your PDP or explain why that wasn't possible. If your circumstances shifted — say, a planned course was cancelled or you moved into a different rotation — I'll record your explanation, mark the standard sign-off statement accordingly, and help you draft a more relevant PDP for the year ahead. It's a normal administrative adjustment, not a black mark.

Absolutely. There's no rule that a PDP must only consist of clinical or academic objectives — professional standards explicitly state that you must look after your own health and wellbeing. Setting a goal around sustainable work-life balance, peer support, or managing workplace stress as a locum is an entirely appropriate and mature use of your PDP.

You're expected to take part in an appraisal every year unless there are clear, mitigating circumstances such as long-term sick leave or maternity leave. If you have an approved break from practice, you don't need to "catch up" on missed appraisals afterwards. The key is communication — speak to your Responsible Officer before you step away from practice, so they can formally record the approved postponement and keep your engagement with the revalidation cycle intact.

This is one of the most common myths in the NHS. The GMC doesn't set a specific numerical requirement for CPD credits — the focus is entirely on the quality of your learning and how it maps to your day-to-day work. The often-quoted "50 credits a year / 250 per cycle" figure is a recommendation from the Medical Royal Colleges, intended as a helpful baseline rather than a hard rule. If you've done fewer credits but can demonstrate that your CPD covered your whole scope of practice and kept you safe and up to date, that meets the requirement.

No — it's worth separating your local contractual employment requirements from your statutory GMC revalidation requirements. Missing your trust's statutory training might cause issues with your employer or agency, but it doesn't automatically affect revalidation. That said, since you have to complete it anyway, it's worth uploading the certificates to your portfolio and claiming them as CPD. Where possible, try to use mandatory modules that are mutually recognised across your different trusts or agencies, to avoid duplicating the same training repeatedly.

You have the right to use an independent appraiser — one who isn't assigned by your designated body. Many doctors, particularly locums and those working across multiple organisations, prefer this because it gives them continuity (the same appraiser year after year), genuine independence, and the flexibility to book at times that suit them. Your designated body still needs to be satisfied that your appraisal was conducted properly, but using an independent, GMC-trained appraiser absolutely meets that requirement. If you're unsure whether your designated body has any specific requirements, it's worth checking with them directly — but in the vast majority of cases, a properly conducted appraisal with an independent appraiser is fully acceptable.

An appraiser provided by your NHS trust or designated body is typically a colleague working within the same organisation — which can sometimes feel less than fully independent, particularly if you have concerns about confidentiality or if the appraiser is in your management chain. An independent appraiser has no organisational affiliation with your employer, which many doctors find makes for a more open, honest conversation. Beyond independence, using a dedicated independent appraiser means you're not competing for appointment slots with colleagues, you can often book evenings and weekends, and you have the option of continuity — working with the same appraiser over multiple years, who builds genuine familiarity with your portfolio and professional journey.

Yes — a short-notice appraisal service is available for doctors who need an appraisal within 48 hours, at a fee of £700. This covers everything included in the standard service: the full appraisal meeting, completed documentation on the 2022 MAG form or your appraisal portal, and all outputs. Short-notice appraisals are conducted online via Microsoft Teams or Google Meet and can be booked and paid for directly through this website, subject to availability. If you need something arranged even more urgently, send an enquiry through the Contact page and I'll do my best to accommodate you.

Yes, absolutely. There's no GMC requirement for your appraiser to be in a different specialty — in fact, having an appraiser who understands the clinical context of your work can make for a richer and more meaningful conversation. What matters is that your appraiser is trained, GMC-aware, and genuinely independent from your employment relationships. As a Locum Consultant Psychiatrist and experienced appraiser, I'm well placed to support psychiatrists at all stages — from newly qualified consultants through to senior locums managing complex portfolios across multiple trusts.

Online appraisals conducted via Microsoft Teams or Google Meet are fully equivalent to in-person ones — there's no GMC requirement for the meeting to happen face to face, and the vast majority of appraisals across the UK are now conducted remotely. The process is identical: you share your portfolio in advance, we meet online for the discussion (typically 60–90 minutes), and I complete the appraisal summary and outputs afterwards. The only practical difference is that you don't need to travel anywhere. Many doctors find this significantly easier to fit around clinical commitments, particularly when working across multiple sites or in different parts of the country.

Yes — if you hold a GMC licence to practise, you're eligible for an appraisal regardless of where you're currently based. Doctors working abroad who maintain their GMC registration still need to engage with the revalidation process, and an online appraisal removes any geographical barrier entirely. The appraisal will focus on your whole scope of practice, including any work outside the UK, and we'll ensure your supporting information addresses your GMC-licensed practice appropriately. Time zone differences can usually be accommodated — get in touch via the Contact page to discuss availability.