Changes to ACC forms seeks to simplify processes for GPs

The recent tender from ACC, seeking innovative ideas from practices to improve the medical certification process for GPs who are supporting patients to return to work after injury, has raised questions about what these proposed changes mean for our workforce, workloads and patients.

After hearing concerns from the membership, I have followed up with ACC for further information about the tender process and the work it has undertaken to increase engagement with primary care.

As GPs we act as advocates for our patients, and we have many frustrations with processes and communication with ACC. These include the lack of remuneration for time spent on patient notes requests (with repeated and unrealistic requests making this time-consuming and taking us away from other important work), unclear recovery pathways for our patients, inconsistency in support and communication from case managers and poor communication with other service providers.

These frustrations have been well voiced over the years, and it is pleasing to see ACC acknowledge this and act on our feedback.

Earlier this year, ACC established the Primary Care External Reference Group (PC-ERG). This comprises a group of health professionals specialising in different areas of primary care who all bring diverse perspectives, ideas and solutions to ensure our patients are supported throughout their recovery and their return to work.

Feedback through the PC-ERG and other engagement has identified the most frequent ideas and solutions for improvement:

• Improving access to treatment
• Reducing administrative burden
• The need for shared care records and digital health solutions
• The need for integrated and comprehensive models of care, for example, allied health professionals being more integrated into general practice teams
• Innovative rehabilitation programmes
• Educational resources and clinical pathways.

How is our feedback being addressed?

ACC is actively exploring how to redesign the ACC18 and ACC45 forms to better support primary care. Its goal is to make it easier for clinicians to:

• Certify patients based on their assessment of the injury and recovery potential, for example, promoting early and safe return to work – encouraging progressive engagement in suitable duties and/or hours (where appropriate) to ensure any unnecessary time away from work is reduced. ACC is also working with employers to help them support their employees returning to some form of work when they are fit to do so, while they recover to return to full duties.
• Access relevant clinical guidelines within the form itself to support the certification process.
• Facilitate smoother referrals processes, reducing administrative burden and improving patient flow.

As ACC works through potential solutions on how to improve these forms, it will be seeking input from the primary care sector to ensure the final product genuinely works for everyone involved.

The College has highlighted the need for support with tools to help track and compare the recovery process. ACC is working with an external technology provider to develop a GP/nurse practitioner dashboard to provide certifying providers with individualised return-to-work performance data, allowing for benchmarking and best practice, with the plan to have data shared at a clinic, regional and organisation level to better support ongoing improvement.

The goal is to ensure certification more accurately reflects the individual’s injury and recovery potential to help patients get back to work, education and independence as soon as possible – something we all support.

Through its current tender, ACC is now inviting the primary care sector to share strategies and innovative ideas that could improve return-to-work outcomes for patients. The reference to meso-level organisations is to ensure bigger sample sizes of ACC patients on which to pilot any new approaches for improving return-to-work outcomes.

I have committed to regular contact with the ACC team to continue driving for change and advocating for the critical role GPs play in improving patient outcomes. When I am able, I will share updates on this initiative and any proposals or decisions made and the impact they might have on our workloads.

At the time of writing this column the tender process was still live, so there were details that were unable to be shared. I hope, however, this has answered some of your questions and provided some clarity.

This column was published on NZ Doctor Rata Aotearoa on 20 November 2025.