Medical appraisal is now a universal process for the profession, supporting accountability, professional development and patient care. The quality of a doctor’s appraisal inputs is fundamental to the quality of their appraisal. Organisations and doctors share the responsibility for gathering information about practice to support appraisal and clinical governance processes. Doctors and their organisations should agree items of information to support these needs. To minimise the burden of documentation and increase objectivity organisations should, where feasible and appropriate, provide this information to their doctors.

Previously, Improving the inputs to medical appraisal (NHS England 2016) was published with the aim of promoting improvements to the inputs to medical appraisal.

Following the restart of appraisals during Covid-19, MAG 2022 – which can be found along with other documentation at the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges website (Medical appraisal – AOMRC) – was introduced and it provides guidance and advice in relation to the current appraisal process.

In cases where an organisation has clinical governance responsibilities for a doctor, but no prescribed connection, the Generic medical in-post review template may also be of use.