​COVID-19 Health Emergency

ALL APPRAISALS SUSPENDED UNTIL 1st OCTOBER 2020
​

Key points
  • Appraisals in the South West will restart from 1st October 2020.  
  • The appraisals will have a new format needing reduced input from the GP
  • The focus will be on experience, challenges and achievements.
  • GPs will be able to debrief and consider their development.
  • Appraisers need to book virtual training.
(RO NHS SW, 27th July 2020)


​Doctors revalidating between March 2020 and March 2021

"If you were due to revalidate between 17 March 2020 and 16 March 2021, we’ve moved your revalidation date by one year.

We've made this decision to give responsible officers and doctors more time to reschedule and complete appraisals."
The General Medical Council, June 2020

More information

There is a lot of information and resources available about COVID-19 from the usual trustworthy sources:

Royal College of General practitioners

The RCGP's entire eLearning content is freely available until 30 June 2020 to support all returning GPs and primary healthcare professionals in the response to COVID-19.

See their COVID-19 Resource Hub which includes a weekly "What's new" section.

The RCGP has published a COVID-19 newsletter packed with links to further resources.

NICE
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has a dedicated page full of COVID-19 advice.

The page includes
  • Everything they have said relevant to COVID-19
  • Rapid guidelines
  • Rapid evidence summaries
  • Medtech inovation briefings
  • Information about coronavirus - COVID-19 in Clinicla Knowlege Summaries (CKS)
General Medical Council
The GMC has a dedicated page about their services in the light of the coronavirus emergency which includes information on:
  • Their ethical guidance
  • How they support the profession
  • Revalidation
  • International Medical Graduates
  • Temporary registration
  • Information for Responsible Officers
NHS England
The letter to Responsible Officers ​(National Medical Director NHS England and NHS Improvement, 19th March 2020) is the official notification that appraisals are suspended.

Their Suspension of appraisal and revalidation during Covid-19 pandemic: frequently asked questions (NHSE, March 2020) expands on the letter.

There is a dedicated page on Coronavirus guidance for clinicians and NHS mangers from NHS England packed with links to official documents.

You can subscribe to their Primary Care Bulletin for frequent updates on COVID-19.
Support for COVID-19 stress
Support for doctors during the COVID-19 pandemic (NHSE SW, March 2020)
Frontline Distress Service for NHS workers on the frontline of COVID-19
See also our Occupational Health page.

Self help for carers 
Calm in the Storm (Dr Andrew Tresidder, March 2020)
​Loss and Change (Dr Andrew Tresidder, March 2020)
Mindfulness resources for health staff (The Mindfulness Initiative, March 2020)