Doctors must go through a new system of checks to show they are safe to treat patients as of today.
Some 19,373 doctors registered and licensed to work in Scotland will be taking part in so-called "revalidation" procedures being brought in across the UK.
The new system makes regular revalidation, usually every five years, a requirement for all doctors to keep their licences.
Run by the General Medical Council (GMC), the system is based on each doctor having an annual appraisal and, on a five-yearly basis, submitting to feedback from patients, fellow doctors, nurses and other colleagues. This is intended to demonstrate they are fit to practise and keeping up-to-date with medical advances.
Though many doctors across the UK already have annual appraisals, concerns have been raised about the patchy way they have been carried out up until now.
The new checks will apply to all doctors, including GPs, hospital doctors, locums and those working in the independent sector. The UK is the first country in the world to introduce such a system.
The GMC said it expected to revalidate the majority of licensed doctors by March 2016, with medical leaders expected to go first.
Professor Sir Peter Rubin, chairman of the GMC, said: "This is an important day for doctors and patients. We are confident that, over time, revalidation will make a significant contribution to the quality of care that patients receive and should give them increased confidence that the doctors who treat them are up-to-date."
Margaret Watt, chairwoman of the Scotland Patients Association, said: "This system will prove a doctor is fit to carry on as a doctor. It's long overdue: there should be some sort of revalidation to ensure they are maintaining the expertise they gained at university and to make sure they are keeping up to speed with medical developments as well."
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: "This is a significant step for the medical profession, and will make an important contribution to the safety of patients and the quality of care they receive."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article