Revalidation and medico-legal practice after retirement

Traditionally, many consultant orthopaedic surgeons have retired from clinical practice and supplemented their pensions in retirement by continuing their medico-legal practice. The longevity of this custom has varied enormously from surgeon to surgeon. There has been no clear monitoring of the situation after retirement in terms of currency or quality of work, other than the fact that if solicitors/insurers continued to issue instructions to the individual then it was presumed that the quality and content of the reports and expert opinion provided were fit for purpose. Then along came revalidation in 2012. I discussed some of the prevalent issues on the subject in an article published in this journal a year ago.1 This brief article should be seen as an update and considered together with the earlier piece. It has been difficult to get a clear position statement from the GMC on this matter, but my understanding remains that if an orthopaedic surgeon is interviewing and examining patients (claimants), he/she is required to maintain GMC registration and hold a licence to practice. In order to do this, the surgeon needs to undergo annual appraisal and revalidate every five years in exactly the same way as they would be required to do when in active (NHS or private) practice. The MDU2 appears quite clear on this, …