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Annual Requirements

Last edited: 8 April 2024

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Scheme Requirements

Requirements for the 2024-2025 PCS year are 40 CPD credits in any category and one audit / quality improvement project.

You should retain evidence to support all your recorded activity on file for a minimum of six years, as per Medical Council guidelines. This evidence can be included on your ePortfolio where it will remain for three PCS years (current year and two previous); you should also maintain a copy on file a minimum of six PCS years.

Evidence should include the following:

  • ·      External: the certificate of attendance given at an event
  • ·      Internal: notes and details regarding the activity* (eg. number of people in attendance, topics discussed)
  • ·      Personal learning: the name of the journal/website, the date of issue or date of access and the topics covered
  • ·      Research and teaching: published paper, slideshow used, course programme
  • ·      Audit: detailed summary/report of the audit*

*Important: Patient identifiers should never appear on your ePortfolio or on any evidence used to support the recording of your professional competence activities.

Categories

The sections below give more information on what is required in each category of the professional competence scheme.

  • 1 audit per year (minimum)

    Clinical audit is about improving patient care. It is a quality improvement process that seeks to determine if we are doing what we should be doing, and the findings are intended for use at a local (practice) level.

    Our Audit Resources section contains lots of advice on conducting your audit, including some sample audits.

  • Internal CPD credits relate to internal practice evaluation and development. One hour of activity = 1 CPD credit

    What to record for your internal CPD

    • Case Presentation: presenting particular patient scenarios to inform others about approaches to care/treatment.
    • Chart Review: Review of patient chart(s) to examine and reflect on management to date with a view to quality improvement of practice.
    • Clinical Case Discussion: discussion with another healthcare professional regarding clinical issues and approaches to a patient's treatment and care
    • Clinical Club: forming a club with other GP colleagues for regular clinical case discussions
    • Clinical Risk Meeting: e.g. where a GP/GP practice develop a plan to deal with seasonal epidemics 
    • CME Small Group meetings: participation in a CME Small Group can be recorded for 2 internal and 2 external CPD credits
    • Committee Participation: these can be recorded for 1 internal CPD credit per meeting (to a maximum of six per year)
    • Grand Rounds 
    • Locum Handover: discussing patient cases, files and updates on the practice
    • PCT/HSE Meeting: A guide is available in our PCS Templates section
    • Peer Review Group: where patient cases/issues/practice issues are presented to peers who provide advice and suggest alternative approaches to care and treatment. 
    • Practice-based Meeting: to discuss patient issues, attendance at courses & how to implement findings to improve patient care. A guide is available in our PCS Templates section.
    • Practice Improvements from GPs: Please see our Practice Improvements section for more information
    • Professional Development Plan (PDP): please see our Professional Development Plan section for more information. 
    • Quality Improvement Process: review of an approach to care/treatment, etc. and implementation of outcomes
    • Significant Event Analysis: A guide is available in our PCS Templates section

    Remember! If you take learning back from a meeting and make subsequent changes to your practice as a result, you can record this for internal credits.

    NB: Don't forget to always retain evidence to support your recorded activities. When recording internal CPD to your ePortfolio, you will need to enter a description (minimum. 50 characters) into the description box. 

    Evidence includes, at a minimum, the topics reviewed/discussed, the number of people in attendance (where relevant) and any practice changes made as a result of the activity. Evidence should be added to your ePortfolio or retained on file for a minimum of six PCS years (current year and five previous). 

  • Important: Don't forget to always retain evidence to support your recorded activities. You should retain certificates of attendance to support your engagement in external CPD. These should be added to your ePortfolio or kept on file for a minimum of six PCS years (current year and five previous). 

  • Personal learning refers to non-interactive learning that relates to your practice, such as reading journals or guidelines, listening to podcasts or watching recorded webinars. ICGP knows that you engage in personal learning every day and has created this guide to assist you in recording it for your CPD.

    What to record for your personal learning CPD:

    • Reading online journals
    • Reading guidelines
    • Listening to podcasts
    • Watching recorded webinars
    • Keeping a learning diary documenting and reflecting on your reading
    • Preparing for committee or practice meetings
    • Carrying out online searches related to your practice

    Personal learning can include the following:

  • For more information on how to record your activity as a CME Tutor, Irish College of GPs Examiner or Faculty Officer, please see our CPD Supports section.

    Research or teaching activity relating to your scope of practice, including engagement in the activities outlined below:

    • Accreditation visit
    • Article publication
    • Programme Director
    • CME Tutor
    • Assistant Programme Director
    • GP Trainer
    • Irish College of GPs Director
    • Irish College of GPs Examiner/Fellow/Tutor
    • Lecturer 
    • National standards development
    • Scientific meeting presentation
    • Question setting
    • Research
    • Undergraduate teaching