Advisory GP25/01: Registration under the National General Practice Accreditation Scheme

Advisory details

Purpose

This advisory sets out the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care’s (the Commission) requirements for registration of general practices for accreditation under the National General Practice Accreditation (NGPA) Scheme.

Issue

From 1 November 2025, general practices that have not previously registered for accreditation with an approved accrediting agency, and want to achieve accreditation under the NGPA Scheme, must register.

Requirements

Process for registration

1. To be eligible for accreditation, a general practice must:
   • meet the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) definition of a general practice for the purpose of accreditation, as outlined in the ‘Accreditation’ section in the RACGP Standards for general practices (the Standards)
   • be operational at the time of registration
   • confirm its ability to meet all relevant mandatory indicators from the Standards.
2. If eligible, the general practice must engage a Commission approved accrediting agency to conduct assessments and award accreditation under the NGPA Scheme.
3. Once the general practice is accepted by the accrediting agency and enters a contract with the accrediting agency, the accrediting agency must notify the Commission using the registration form within 10 business days.
4. Following the notification:
   • The Commission issues the accrediting agency with a unique practice identification number (ID) for the practice with a registration expiry date, which is 12 months from the date the general practice entered into a contract with the accrediting agency.
   • The accrediting agency then issues the general practice a registration certificate, using a template provided by the Commission, and the Overview of the NGPA Scheme.
5. If the general practice has been registered previously, the Commission notes the re-engagement and informs the accrediting agency of the existing registration details and unique practice ID.
6. Following the registration, the general practice should undertake an assessment to all relevant indicators in the Standards, at least four months prior to the registration expiry date. This will maximise the available time for each step of the process and minimise the risk of the registration expiry date lapsing. The accrediting agencies will provide advice on assessment dates that meet these timelines. It is ultimately the responsibility of the general practice to evaluate and accept any risks associated with delays in the assessment date.

Process for routine assessment

The initial assessment should be undertaken at least four months prior to the registration expiry date.

This assessment is conducted on-site for general practices with physical premises, and virtually for general practices without physical premises.

At the initial assessment, the assessors will:

• review the general practice's compliance against all relevant indicators in the Standards through a visual inspection, interviews with key personnel and a review of documents
• advise the general practice of any relevant indicators that could be rated ‘not met’.

Within five business days of the initial assessment, the accrediting agency must provide an initial report to the general practice to confirm the rating of each relevant indicator and the additional evidence required for any indicators that have been rated ‘not met’.

Where indicators are not met, the general practice has a remediation period of up to 65 business days to implement changes and provide its accrediting agency with additional evidence demonstrating compliance with the indicators.

Once all additional evidence has been submitted, the accrediting agency conducts a final assessment to determine if the indicators has been fully met.

Within 20 business days of completing the final assessment, the accrediting agency must provide a final report and indicating:

• If accreditation is awarded, the accreditation expiry date is three years from the date the accrediting agency determines the accreditation outcome.
• If the general practice does not meet one or more mandatory indicators, accreditation is not awarded. The general practice will need to re-commence the process, re-engaging an accrediting agency and undertaking an assessment. 

Appeal process

General practices have 20 business days from receiving the final assessment report to submit an appeal against any decision made by the accrediting agency. Appeals should be made to the accrediting agency in the first instance. Following the completion of this appeal, general practices may appeal to the Commission within 20 business days of receiving the outcome of an appeal to the accrediting agency. 

The Commission will only consider appeals where there is evidence that the relevant accrediting agency did not comply with Commission specified policies, processes and/or directions relating to the assessment conducted as detailed in Advisory GP23/02: Request for extensions and appeals.

Costs

All costs associated with registration, assessment and appeals are the responsibility of the general practice.