Quality assurance of GP appraisal: a two-year study

This paper outlines the processes of quality assurance of GP appraisal in Wales. These processes demonstrate the application of national guidance for quality assurance of medical appraisal as recommended by the National Clinical Governance Support Team (NCGST). The paper describes how defined standards of practice in the context of GP appraisal have, on a relatively large scale, been developed and demonstrated through robust internal and external quality assurance mechanisms. These quality assurance mechanisms reveal positive feedback from the vast majority of participants in the process. Both GPs and appraisers report that they benefited from their involvement in appraisal. The study demonstrates that the outputs of appraisal (summary and personal development plan) accurately reflect the content of the appraisal and help doctors to plan their learning, although further work is required with respect to specifying action plans.