If only

In Dr No’s latest post he points out one of the possible consequences of revalidation, the loss of a considerable proportion of doctors from the system. Most colleagues that I have spoken to are antipathetic to revalidation, seeing it as no more than a stick to beat us with, with no real practical benefit to anyone. A massive, hideous and expensive bureaucracy administered by an organisation with all the empathy, fairness and arrogance of the Spanish Inquisition.

We are being pushed around a lot at the moment especially financially. We have put up with a pay freeze, our pension contributions are about to rocket. Some are about to lose child benefit, and others can no longer aspire to a CEA. In addition the steady erosion of our clinical autonomy has also contributed to the decline in morale, and for many for whom retirement is an option revalidation will prove the last straw.

And yet if the profession could get it’s act together we could stop revalidation in it’s tracks. If one of us simply stood up and said he was going to boycott the whole process he would of course be singled out as the first casualty of the system. The GMC would take him out like a pride of lions homing in on a lame zebra. But what if all of us told them to shove it up their arse? Or at least a big enough proportion to make the whole system unworkable. As this picture shows the zebra can fight back effectively.

What could they do, strike us all off?