Independent Responsible Officer Services

Supporting Designated Body organisations with technology and expertise in Appraisal, Revalidation and Medical Governance since 2011.

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Independent Responsible Officer Services & Support

All employing organisations who are recognised as Designated Bodies under the Medical Profession (Responsible Officer) Regulations 2010 and 2013 amended Regulations, are required to nominate or appoint a Responsible Officer.

Designated Body organisations may find the process of appointing an ‘in-house’ Responsible Officer and implementing the necessary governance systems costly in terms of available internal resources and financial viability.

Your organisation can benefit from our cost-effective, impartial and defensible RO and Governance solutions, leaving you free to focus on your core business objectives and your clients.

MEDSU can provide you with a quality assured and comprehensive governance service as a fully outsourced and risk managed service. This includes the nomination of a highly experienced and fully trained Responsible Officer; whose duty it is to ensure that your organisation has appropriate processes in place, and provide a framework within which your doctors are encouraged to maintain and improve their practice.

The role of a Responsible Officer

Responsible Officers (or RO’s for short) are senior medical practitioners recognised and approved by the GMC and NHSE. They have statutory powers and responsibilities, including monitoring the fitness to practise of medical professionals, ensuring patient safety within healthcare organisations, and they advise the GMC of their recommendations to relicence medical practitioners under their supervision.

Why do we need an RO?

Organisations that are classified as “Designated Bodies”, employing or contracting with 1 or more doctors are, by law, required to nominate or appoint a Responsible Officer. Doctors employed within your organisation may not be able to relicense with the GMC unless you have an RO. For a variety of reasons it may be difficult or impractical for medical practitioners to work in organisations that do not have an RO in place.

Is my organisation a Designated Body?

What are the responsibilities of an RO?

RO’s now play a wide ranging and pivotal role in medical governance in UK healthcare organisations. They ensure that the fitness to practise of medical practitioners is continuously monitored to ensure patient safety. It is their duty to identify and investigate any concerns about a doctors’ conduct or performance and provide support and remediation where a doctors practice falls below the required standard.

They are also also responsible for ensuring an effective system to support appraisal and revalidation is in place to enable them to make recommendations about a doctor’s fitness to practice to the General Medical Council (GMC).

Who does an RO liaise with?

RO’s work with a wide range of people in Designated Body organisations including Compliance and HR Teams. They also work closely with other Responsible Officers across the healthcare sector.

Your Responsible Officer plays a crucial role in ensuring that your employed doctors and your organisation maintains a focus on the required quality standards and provides assurance to the regulatory bodies, NHSE and the GMC in this regard.

What's included in MEDSUs Responsible Officer Service?

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Appointment of a highly trained and experienced Responsible Officer to manage revalidation recommendations.

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Fully compliant Governance systems, policies and procedures, regularly reviewed and updated.

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Management of your Framework of Quality Assurance obligations, including quarterly and annual returns to NHSE.

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Support from a professional, experienced revalidation team and network of experienced Appraisers.

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Access to a unique and cost-effective Appraisal solution including 360 MSF toolkit and Apps for your doctors.

Choosing the right solution for your organisation

You need to Appoint a new RO

Whether you are a new Designated Body that needs to appoint an RO, or an existing Designated Body and your current Responsible Officer is leaving; we can help.

MEDSU can provide a nominated Responsible Officer and Deputy RO to your organisation who will implement, oversee and ensure that all of your governance processes meet mandated requirements in law.

Our RO’s provide you with consistency and continuity – essential components of a successful approach to dealing with regulatory and compliance demands.

Your existing RO needs Support

We can provide all the support your RO and organisation needs to ensure excellence in medical governance.

We provide a community of senior clinicians with expertise in matters of medical governance, a fully trained Appraiser panel, a dedicated administrative team and access to the MEDSU portal – a leading technology platform for managing the Appraisal and Revalidation cycle in the UK.

Who are MEDSU?

Since 2011, we have been developing a highly positive reputation within the UK medical community as a leading independent governance organisation.

We support both public and private healthcare organisations and independent doctors with their Appraisal and Revalidation obligations.

Our community of RO’s, Appraisers, Fitness to Practise Case investigators and Managers grows consistently, as we continue to develop our innovative technology supported by a fully outsourced service from our in-house team, or a flexible modular service supporting an organisations’ in-house RO, with as much infrastructure and resource as required.

Get in Touch

If you are a Designated Body organisation, Responsible Officer or Suitable Person who is interested in finding out more about our services and software solutions for the revalidation management of your doctors, contact us via telephone, email or using the form below.

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Contact

Email: [email protected]
Tel: 0800 689 9434