United Kingdom
House of Commons Expresses Strong Support for UK's ‘Revalidation’ Concept
A key House of Commons committee has given its stamp of approval to the “revalidation” concept for physicians in the United Kingdom — a rough equivalent of the Maintenance of Licensure (MOL) concept that has been proposed in the United States.
The House of Commons' Health Committee said it “looked to the General Medical Council (GMC) to ensure that there are no further delays and that the current target date (late 2012) is achieved” as a “commitment to practice improvement.”
Niall Dickson, the Chief Executive of the GMC and a member of the Management Committee of the International Association of Medical Regulatory Authorities (IAMRA), said the GMC welcomed the committee's report and that its position on revalidation is that “there must now be no delay in its introduction.”
“This report makes clear that the Committee shares the joint commitment of the GMC and the four U.K. health departments to introduce revalidation by the end of 2012. It remains our number one priority,” Dickson said.
While the committee's report highlighted areas where more work is needed on the revalidation process, its overall support provides important momentum for implementation. The specific guidelines for revalidation that were proposed will be published this spring.
Revalidation was first proposed in the U.K. in 2000. Over the last several years, the concept has been vetted widely, including more than 130 discussion forums across the U.K. Government officials met with more than 4,000 physicians and a wide range of employer organizations and representatives from patient groups in the process of shaping the proposal.
Source: General Medical Council website, April 2011
South Africa
Authorities in South Africa Crack Down on Bogus Physicians
Seven Nigerian nationals were arrested in South Africa recently as a part of a raid aimed at a problem that some observers say is surprisingly prevalent — physician impersonation.
The incidence of bogus physicians in South Africa is “shocking” according to a leading private forensic investigator in Pretoria, Lizette Esterhuizen. “The medical profession is one of the most targeted areas for credentials fraud,” she said.
Two of the men arrested in the Pretoria raid were licensed physicians who are accused of renting out their practice certificates to allow the other men to perform illegal surgeries. The bogus physicians used practice numbers belonging to the real physicians.
The licensed physicians own busy practices in several South African cities, including Gauteng, Limpopo, Eastern Cape and Western Cape. One of the medical practices also houses a dentist as well as an optometrist. They are accused of running a criminal syndicate that provided unqualified medical services.
Among the items confiscated during the raids at various places were computers, a variety of medicines, cell phones and qualification certificates issued in Nigeria. Police also confiscated a large amount of cash from one of the authentic physician's residence.
Source: South African Medical Association website, April 2011
