Responsible Officer role

Responsible Officer role

A bureaucratic oversight function provided for through the Health and Social Care Act 2008 in the context of revalidation, which is required of medically qualified doctors in the UK on a five-year cycle.
The Responsible Officer concept was introduced by a white paper in 2008. All licensed doctors will relate formally to a responsible officer—one RO per doctor—irrespective of the number of organisations a doctor may work with. ROs will have new responsibilities in relation to regulation, revalidation and clinical governance. ROs will rely on robust clinical governance information feeding through to appraisal portfolios to inform the recommendation process.