Assessor FAQs

Once a practice has met all requirements for Foundation Standard, the process is:

  • Email the practice to congratulate them on achieving Foundation Standard. Advise them the certificate will arrive from the College within three weeks. Also ask the practice to ‘unshare’ their Smartsheet assessment with you.

  • Notify the College and record the practice’s achievement of Foundation Standard
    • Log into the assessor portal on the Quality website
    • Click ‘add a new assessment
    • Complete and submit the form, the College will now be notified

This is a regulated requirement. At the same time, the intention is not to delay Foundation Standard certification so a good compromise between an assessor and the practice is to: 

  1. Ask the practice to complete an exemption request form and email it to quality@rnzcgp.org.nz 
  2. If approved, ask the practice to upload the form to their assessment and include a comment that the form has been uploaded
  3. Confirm the exemption form in your assessor comment
  4. Complete the assessment and submit the assessment to the College
 

Resuscitation skills certificates are valid for two years.

New Zealand Resuscitation Council certificates are valid for one year with the intent of the accreditation body or employer making the decision on how often it is to be repeated, so the date of issue is more important than the expiry.  

The health setting will determine the frequency of training (e.g. a rural location, A & E or a critical health setting). The expiry date can be between one and three years. College guidelines require Fellows and registrars to hold a current CPR certificate (not older than three years) in CORE Advanced.

Some practices have had police vetting for non-clinical practice staff declined by their vetting agency. The College maintains the stance that all non-clinical staff require safety checking (of which police vetting is a component). If any practices have difficulty accessing police vetting for their non-clinical staff, please email quality@rnzcgp.org.nz 

A digital camera is on the equipment list. However, if practice teams prefer to use their smartphones, there are encrypted apps which can be utilised for the secure taking and sending of photos. One of these is ‘Celohealth’, you can read about it here.

If the practice has 20 or more employees and a team member requests it, a trained Health and Safety Representative is to be appointed. Managers may choose to complete the WorkSafe Representative training for managers and supervisors, but this is optional.

All team members are to complete Privacy Act 2020 and Health Information Privacy Code 2020 (Health ABC). This is on top of the privacy training previously completed relevant to their role. Train the trainer is not an option here but if your practice is due a Foundation Standard assessment and the team is struggling to complete the training, please email me. (All privacy training now only needs to be completed once).

A good strategy for a practice to look at the diversities within their enrolled population (and local population if feasible); identify the training needs of the practice team, both collectively and individually, and design a tailored programme using the recommendations within the guidance.

Medical equipment that connects directly with a patient requires a 10mAmp Type 1 RCD. Please see the guidance for further details including the frequency of testing, documentation, the features of a body protected area, and clauses from the Electrical (Safety) Regulations 2010.