Frequently asked questions

You upload the evidence you've accumulated — CPD certificates, audit and QIP reports, MSF and patient-feedback reports, significant-event write-ups, compliments and complaint correspondence. Simpraisal reads every document, files each one under the right GMC supporting-information category with a reason you can check, shows you what's missing, and exports a category-ordered, appraisal-ready pack. It's built for the catch-up sort: the appraisal is booked and five years of evidence is in a folder called misc.

No. Your portfolio of record is whichever system your designated body uses — Simpraisal doesn't replace it, connect to it, or write into it. You do the messy sorting here, then load the organised pack into your portfolio system or hand it to your appraiser. Think of it as the sorting table, not the filing cabinet.

No, and that's deliberate. Nobody but you has access to your workspace, and nothing leaves it unless you export it and share it yourself. Your appraisal discussion, your declarations, and your revalidation submission stay entirely yours.

Your documents are stored encrypted in London (UK data residency) and are only ever processed to sort your own evidence. We never train AI models on your data, never sell it, and deleting your account erases everything within 30 days. Full details are in our privacy policy.

The GMC expects supporting information to be anonymised before it goes anywhere near your appraisal — and clinical evidence like SEA write-ups and complaint correspondence is exactly where patient details hide. Simpraisal screens every page for patient-identifiable data — NHS numbers, dates of birth, names in clinical context — and blocks any risky document from your export until you've redacted and re-uploaded it, or recorded why the flag was a false positive. This screening is always free and never behind the paywall, because it's a safety feature, not a sales one.

We know exactly why doctors are wary of writing reflections down anywhere new — the Bawa-Garba case made that anxiety rational, and we won't pretend otherwise. So: your reflective material lives only in your own private workspace, is used for nothing except sorting your own evidence, is never used to train AI models, and is deleted when you delete it. You choose what to upload, and the GMC's own position is that reflective notes should be anonymised — our screening helps you check that too.

Every suggestion comes with its reasoning and a confidence score, and nothing is filed until you confirm it. Think of Simpraisal as a very organised registrar who's read all your documents and made a first pass — you remain the consultant who signs it off. Confidence measures whether a document belongs in a category; it is never a judgement of whether your evidence is sufficient. That conversation belongs with your appraiser.

Consultants and SAS doctors in UK secondary care preparing for annual appraisal or a revalidation recommendation — including portfolio careers that mix NHS, private, medico-legal, teaching and management work. It's not currently built for GP appraisal workflows (no MAG-form support yet). Doctors in training have ARCP instead; that's a different product.

No, and be wary of anything that claims otherwise. Your appraiser leads the appraisal discussion and your Responsible Officer makes the revalidation recommendation; the GMC makes the decision. What Simpraisal does is make sure nothing goes wrong for organisational reasons: evidence you can't find, categories with nothing in them, out-of-date certificates, or patient data where it shouldn't be.

Uploading, the anonymisation screen, and your true gap counts are free — no card needed. One £79 Sort Pass unlocks the rest for that application: the full filing detail with reasoning, the coverage board, AI-drafted category descriptions (you edit, you approve), and the export pack, with re-exports at no extra cost. Price includes VAT. No subscription.

The pipeline reads a large archive in hours, not weeks — scans included. Most of the remaining time is you confirming the filing and deciding what to do about gaps, which the coverage board makes a checklist rather than a dig. Weeks out is comfortable; days out is still worth doing.