Wednesday 18 October 2006
Gisborne Doctor Surgeries Pass Grueling Warrant of Fitness
Six Gisborne general practices are offering a gold star level of service, one of the country’s most testing health
audits has confirmed.
The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners has awarded six Gisborne GP practices accreditation for three
years, effectively giving the practices a gold star stamp of approval.
The six GP Practices are The Village Clinic, Mangapapa Medical Centre, Serendipity Health Ltd, Kaiti Medical Centre,
Desmond Road Medical Centre, and City Medical Centre. All are part of Turanganui Primary Health Organisation (TPHO).
Mangapapa Medical Centre GP and TPHO Board member Dr Ken McFarlane said he and the other GP Practice staff knew that the
medical centres already provided high quality care. “But getting accreditation is the official recognition we needed to
prove it. It’s like signing up for a voluntary warrant of fitness and we have all passed,” he said.
“We were already focusing on doing the best for our patients but during the accreditation process, if we found a
problem, we fixed it, and now we have been able to make our best even better,” Dr McFarlane said. Accreditation is valid
for three years.
TPHO Chief Executive Keriana Brooking said the work and enthusiasm staff have shown has been hugely appreciated and most
importantly the people of this community are the ones to benefit.”
“This process is all part of building community confidence in health and disability services. While Turanganui GP
Practices already provide high quality care, accreditation is the health sector endorsement we needed to prove it“.
Accreditation has been a feature in the secondary health or hospital arena for many years but is a recent development
for primary care.
The accreditation assessors visited the practices between March and August this year. They looked at the way the
practices did dozens of things including maintaining the privacy of personal health information, access for patients
with physical disabilities, recalling children for immunisation, and ongoing educational activities for staff.
The cost of achieving accreditation was met by a membership-based organization for General Practitioners called Pinnacle
Incorporated which provides financial, business, clinical, quality and information technology support to the six GP
Practices.
Turanganui PHO, Pinnacle, and RNZCGP Deputy Chair and Gisborne GP Dr David Whittet, are acknowledging the GP Practice
staff’s achievement at an accreditation celebration tomorrow.
ENDS