We recommend you use up-to-date browsers and operating systems when using MARS, using the latest versions is more secure and provides better compatibility with key features on the site. The recommended/supported browsers are;
You may still be able to access the site on older browser versions but we cannot guarantee that all the features will work correctly or provide sufficient security. Please note that Windows 7 is no longer supported by Microsoft and therefore some features in MARS may not display correctly.
You can check your browser and operating system to determine what system/browser you are currently using. We may need this information if you contact us with a technical query.
We recommend that, where possible, you use your NHS Wales account on MARS to reduce the risk of emails being sent into your junk/spam filter. If you do use a personal email, please ensure you check your junk/spam filter regularly and add the emails to your ‘safe senders’ list.
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Appraisal slots indicate to the doctor specifically when you are available to undertake appraisal meetings. You can enter individual slots or enter a block of available days/times (i.e. every Tuesday at 10:00AM).
To do this, go to the ‘Manage’ page on your MARS account and select ‘Manage Availability’. Complete the information required in the pop-up box and click ‘close’ once done. You will see your appraiser calendar is populated with green squares to indicate the available days or times.
To edit or remove slots from your calendar, go to the ‘Manage’ page and select ‘Manage Availability’. A pop-up box will appear with all your current available slots, use the red cross to remove selected slots.
Your biopic is a short biography focused on your clinical interests, area of speciality, availability, and location. Your biopic will be available to view by doctors who are searching for an appraiser to undertake their next appraisal. You should ensure this is kept up to date regularly.
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You should go to the ‘Manage’ page and select ‘Add/Edit Biopic’ on the right-hand side.
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You can use the ‘iCal’ function to download your appraisal calendar from MARS and add this to your Outlook calendar. However, this is not a live sync. You would need to do this regularly to ensure your Outlook calendar is up to date.
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Once you receive a request from a doctor, you will receive a notification from MARS to your registered email address. We also recommend checking MARS regularly, you will see any outstanding requests on the ‘Manage’ page in the ‘Appraiser Requests’ box.
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Go to the ‘Manage’ page and you’ll see if there are any outstanding requests in the ‘Appraiser Requests’ box. Click this box and choose the green tick to accept or red cross to reject. The doctor will be notified via email of the outcome.
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Firstly, if there is a meeting date entered on MARS, you need to cancel this. Go to ‘Appraisals’ and click the red cross next to the doctor’s meeting date. Once this has been done, go to ‘Manage’ and click into the ‘Awaiting Meeting Dates’ box. You’ll see a red cross in the ‘Action’ column where you can remove the doctor from your list. The doctor will be notified and need to select a new Appraiser.
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There are a few reasons why this may occur:
- You do not have any availability slots in your calendar and your monthly availability is unavailable for the months included in the doctor’s Allocated Quarter (AQ) or the subsequent AQ
- The doctor’s AQ is incorrect. Once a doctor does not have an appraisal in their AQ or the subsequent AQ, they will be unable to select an appraiser. GPs should contact the GP Appraisal team and all specialties should contact their health board/Designated Body to discuss
- You have already appraised this doctor twice in the last 5 appraisals and the doctor will need to select an alternative appraiser. If the doctor feels they have extenuating circumstances that may fall outside of this policy, they should contact their Health Board/Designated Body to discuss this
Further information on how to manage your appraiser availability can be found within the ‘Manage Availability’ section on this FAQ page.
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Once you have accepted an appraisal request you need to propose a meeting date or meeting dates. To do this, click on ‘Awaiting Meeting Dates’ on the ‘Manage’ page. A list of all doctors awaiting meeting dates will be displayed here. Click on the calendar icon and complete the template with the date or dates (you can select up to 3 proposed dates) then click send. Those proposed dates will be shown in your appraisal calendar (brown) until a date is agreed by the doctor. You will be notified by email once the doctor has actioned the proposal.
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You may have agreed a meeting date with the doctor outside of the MARS system. If you have done this, you still need to enter the date into MARS to view the doctor’s information and create an appraisal summary. Go to ‘Manage’ and scroll through to the month in which the appraisal is taking place. Click on the day and a pop-up box will appear, select the doctor from the drop-down list and add a meeting time and any additional information and click ‘Send’. This will populate your calendar as a confirmed meeting.
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If the doctor has not agreed any of the dates proposed, MARS automatically takes the earliest of those dates for all system functions (i.e. lockout). However, we would advise that you try and contact the doctor directly to confirm a meeting date.
If you are unable to agree a meeting date with the doctor, you may wish to ask them to select a new Appraiser.
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Go to the date of the meeting in your appraisal calendar, click on the doctor’s name and complete the template with the new information. This will generate a notification to the doctor and the system will update to reflect the new meeting date.
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Go to the ‘Appraisals’ page and find the doctor you wish to cancel the meeting date for. In the first left-hand column you will see a meeting date and time, to cancel this, simply click the red cross. Please note that by cancelling a meeting date:
- You will no longer have access to a doctor’s appraisal information
- Any work completed on the appraisal summary will be lost
- The doctor will be taken out of lockout and will be able to add or edit appraisal information
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If you would like the doctor to enter further appraisal information, you may wish to postpone the meeting date to allow them to collect further information. Alternatively, you can agree to keep the same meeting date but allow them additional time to include further entries.
Guidance can be subject to change depending on circumstances, (i.e. COVID-19) where requirements may vary.
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You can view the doctor’s appraisal information by clicking the ‘piece of paper’ icon in the ‘App info’ column. You can also download the information into a PDF using the arrow if required/preferred.
This information however is subject to change until 14 days before the meeting for GPs and 7 days for all other specialties. If the doctor has added supporting information to supplement their appraisal entries, you can open and download this from the same area.
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The information will be available to you 30 days before the meeting date entered on MARS. The doctor will be locked from adding further information or editing existing information 14 days prior to the meeting for GPs and 7 days prior for all other specialties.
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A doctor is able to upload supporting information to supplement their appraisal entries and reflections. They can upload electronic supporting information or indicate they will bring physical supporting information to the appraisal meeting, the table below shows you the icons which will indicate what type of supporting information has been uploaded.
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You can download a doctor’s appraisal information using the ‘down arrow’ in the ‘App info’ column. You should ensure you follow General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and ensure you dispose of this via your local confidential waste once you no longer require this for the appraisal meeting. You will create the summary in a separate area.
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You can view an doctor's details, as well as any previous appraisals by going to ‘Appraisals ‘ and clicking on the blue person icon in the ‘First Name’ column. You will also be able to view the doctor’s progress towards revalidation, their professional activities and job plan (if applicable).
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Contact details for the doctor can be found by clicking on the blue person icon in the ‘First Name’ column of the ‘Appraisals’ page. An email address will be provided and a contact number (if the doctor has entered one).
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During the coronavirus pandemic, the way in which doctors interact with each other as well as patients has changed. Social distancing measures have meant that virtual meetings in general have been used far more widely than ever before. As appraisal traditionally involves a 1:1 meeting this has also had to adapt to these new circumstances. In some cases, doctors may feel more comfortable having their appraisal virtually to avoid travel and unnecessary contact with others. Once you commit the appraisal summary, you will need to indicate if the meeting was face-to-face or virtual when prompted.
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To meet the requirements of revalidation the General Medical Council (GMC) requires all doctors to present supporting information covering all aspects of their professional duties. This will require information being presented at an annual appraisal. Doctors often undertake multiple roles – either cross specialty or in management, education etc. All of these roles will be covered by revalidation requirements and will need to be represented at an appraisal discussion.
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The professional context should be a brief overview of the doctor’s practice, including all roles that they undertake.
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Once you are ready, you can start populating the appraisal summary by selecting the ‘paper’ icon in the ‘Summary Builder’ column from the ‘Appraisals’ page. You should action each tab of the summary builder:
- Appraisal Information
- Constraints
- Insights & Reflections
- PDP
- Revalidation
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The bulk of the appraisal summary will be created in this tab, you can choose to ‘Add all information’ the doctor has entered or can select a few entries that you want to concentrate on. Once you have added the entries the doctor has entered, you’ll have the opportunity to add appraiser comments by selecting the ‘edit’ icon where available. You may choose to merge some appraisal entries, and more information about this can be found below.
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The onus is on the doctor to ensure they include sufficient information to support a meaningful appraisal discussion, we recommend that you review the doctor’s information prior to the start of the lockout period so you can prompt the doctor to enter more if required. Once the doctor is in the lockout period, if you determine there is insufficient information, we recommend postponing the appraisal meeting to a later date, with any future revalidation dates considered. If you proceed with the original date but allow the doctor additional time to compile the information, you can follow the below workaround process:
- Edit the meeting date to a date more than 7/14 days in the future but less than 29 days
- This will take the doctor out of lockout to enter additional information
- You should then edit the meeting date to the correct date
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If you wish to merge appraisal entries, you can do so from the summary builder, then appraisal information tab. Select ‘Add Doctor’s Information’ and use the tick boxes on the right-hand side to select the entries you wish to merge. You should then click the green ‘Add/Merge Selected’ button and again use the tick boxes on the right-hand side before pressing ‘Add Selected’. You then need to choose the category and domain that the entry aligns to and add your comments.
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If there are multiple entries that are similar in nature, these can be discussed together at the appraisal meeting and you can comment on the entries in one place without having to make separate comments for each entry.
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When on the ‘Appraisal Information’ tab of the summary builder, you’ll also see a blue button towards the top, ‘Create New Information’. If there are entries significant to the appraisal discussion that you feel needs an entry, you can use this button. This does however place the onus on you as the appraiser to write the information.
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If the declarations are locked and need to be amended, go to the ‘Overview’ tab on the summary builder. Click the ‘Unlock’ button in the ‘Probity and Declarations’ section. The declarations will remain unlocked until the doctor has amended these, you won’t be able to commit the summary until they re-complete these.
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Before you can commit an appraisal summary, the below conditions need to be met:
- The doctor has completed their annual probity declarations
- There is at least 1 entry in the appraisal summary
- The 'Revalidation Progress Page' has been completed by you
- You have marked the meeting as complete and confirmed the meeting date
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You as the appraiser will be responsible for creating a PDP based on the doctor’s information and the appraisal discussion. You will do this via the PDP tab of the summary builder, click ‘Add New Activity’ and complete the information required in the pop-up box. If the doctor has added an ‘Aspirational PDP’ item and you agree this should form part of their agreed PDP this will also be visible on the PDP tab. At the bottom of this tab, you will see ‘Aspirational Activities’ and you can select the green ‘add the agreed’ button in the last right-hand column. If you do not add ‘Aspirational PDP’ items, these will not be added to the doctor’s agreed PDP.
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The General Medical Council (GMC) guidance for appraisal and revalidation provides a detailed guide on what the doctor should complete in order to revalidate. However, if you still have queries on whether the information meets the threshold, we recommend contacting your local Appraisal Co-Ordinator or Appraisal Lead. Alternatively, you can contact your health board/Designated Body for further advice.
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Recent changes to General Medical Council (GMC) guidance means that a doctor should collect feedback from patients and colleagues and reflect on this annually. However, the doctor needs to complete a formal feedback exercise at least once per revalidation cycle.
Orbit360 is free at the point of use for all doctors with a prescribed connection to a Welsh NHS body. Once the doctor has completed a formal report, they’ll need to reflect upon the report at the appraisal for you to validate for revalidation. The GMC also provide further guidance on patient and colleague feedback for revalidation and further support for Orbit360 can be found on the Orbit360 Frequently Asked Questions page.
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The comments on the revalidation progress page can be used to provide context or further advice to the doctor. For example, you may wish to advise the doctor to complete a patient and colleague feedback exercise prior to their next appraisal to meet the requirements of revalidation. The comments will be visible to the doctor and health board teams until they complete their next appraisal.
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The doctor will need to get in touch with the revalidation team in their health board/Designated Body to discuss the next steps.
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You now need to commit the appraisal summary; this will allow the doctor to read this and let you know if they have queries. You should go to the ‘Appraisals’ page and select the appraisal you wish to commit. Tick the ‘Meeting Complete’ box. Please ensure this is the correct doctor and you enter the correct date as this process cannot be reversed. Then you can click the ‘Commit Summary’ box. If there are any actions you've not completed as detailed above, you will be prompted to do so before the summary can be committed.
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If a summary is rejected, the doctor will need to provide brief details. These details will be visible by clicking the speech bubble on the Appraisals page. If you agree, you can amend the summary and commit it again, or you may wish to discuss this further with the doctor. If you and the doctor cannot agree on the appraisal summary, you should liaise with your local Appraisal Co-Ordinator or Appraisal Lead in the first instance. If you require further assistance, you should contact your health board/Designated Body for further advice.
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You can view anonymised feedback by going to the ‘Feedback Analytics’ page. Select 'Medical Appraisal Feedback Survey – Live’ from the published survey menu, choose your name in the Appraisers menu and filter the period you wish to view in the ‘From’ and ‘To’ menu. To help protect the anonymity of responses, feedback is available in variables of 3 (i.e. 3,6,9 etc).
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If you wish to become an appraiser, please contact the Revalidation Support Unit (RSU) GP Appraisal team if you work in General Practice.
If you work in secondary care, appraiser recruitment is managed locally by each health board/Designated Body, you should contact them to discuss this. They will inform us once we are able to allocate you the appraiser role on MARS. Once you’ve completed the necessary requirements, the RSU will add the 'Appraiser role' to your MARS account.
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