Monitoring and Audit

I am worried that I won’t fulfil the verification process requirements of a professional competence scheme

You must cooperate with any verification process applied by a recognised postgraduate training body operating a professional competence scheme. You will be asked to provide supporting documentation regarding participation in maintenance of professional competence activities which you have recorded. If you cannot provide supporting documentation, this will be noted. This may impact on the total number of credits which you have accrued in the relevant 12-month period.

I am worried that I won’t fulfil the audit process requirements of the Medical Council

All doctors who apply to retain their registration with the Medical Council and pay the annual retention fee will be asked to complete an Annual Retention Application Form regarding their continuing practice. Doctors will be asked to make a declaration regarding maintenance of professional competence. The submission of this declaration is a requirement under Rules for the Maintenance of Professional Competence. Failure to make a declaration breaches rules and places your continuing registration and right to practice medicine at risk.

The Medical Council quality checks information provided by doctors against professional competence scheme data. This may result in the Medical Council requesting further information from doctors concerned, including but not limited to their Statement of Participation. A doctor’s Statement of Participation is a key document and should be retained at all times. The Statement of Participation provides supporting evidence of participation in a professional competence scheme and maintenance of professional competence. It should be retained as the Medical Council will be requesting some doctors to validate declarations made about their maintenance of professional competence through submission of supporting evidence.

Doctors will only have to submit supporting evidence if requested to validate their declaration by the Medical Council.

Will the recognised postgraduate training body report on my maintenance of professional competence to the Medical Council?

The recognised postgraduate training bodies will provide annual reports to the Medical Council on the operation of professional competence schemes. The annual report will include summary information on the professional competence scheme such that no particulars relating to the identity of any doctor may be ascertained from it. You will be responsible for reporting to the Medical Council that you are maintaining your professional competence. This is not a responsibility of recognised postgraduate training bodies operating professional competence schemes. In rare situations, where it is necessary to perform functions under the Act and in line with its provisions, your information may be shared directly between the recognised postgraduate training bodies operating professional competence schemes and the Medical Council.

What evidence do I need to provide if I am selected for audit?

At the end of each 12-month period, professional competence schemes will issue a Statement of Participation to all enrolled doctors. In general, this will be available for doctors in May each year. It sets out the activity which a doctor has accrued in that 12-month period, as well as the previous four years. It will also reference whether or not the activities accrued have been verified by the postgraduate training body. In this way, it will allow the doctor and the Medical Council to ensure that targets for CPD and Clinical Audit activity are being met, on average, in that five-year period.