- You have a yearly appraisal with a trained appraiser.
- Every five years your Responsible Officer (or Suitable Person) makes a recommendation to the GMC about your revalidation.
- You collect supporting information: CPD, quality improvement, feedback from patients and colleagues, significant events, complaints and compliments.
- Doctors in training are revalidated through the ARCP process.
What goes in your appraisal folder
- A scope-of-practice statement and your CPD record.
- Quality improvement activity and reflection on its outcome.
- Significant events, complaints and compliments, and what you learned.
- Feedback from colleagues and patients, collected at least once in each five-year cycle.
Your Responsible Officer reviews your appraisals and recommends that you revalidate, defers the decision if more evidence is needed, or notes non-engagement. Start collecting evidence from the day you register.
This page is general education, reviewed 24 October 2026. Rules, fees and dates change: always confirm with the official sources below. It is not medical, legal or immigration advice.