Current Topic

Change

Disciplinary Process

• Policy edited for improved readability and to provide links to current guidance.

Medical Equipment Checking

• Relevant standard changed to AS/NZ 3003:2008 in all places.
• AS/NZ 3551 has been removed as it's no longer required for the Foundation Standard.

Foundation Training

• Updates to indicator numbers to align with RNZCGP 2022 Foundation Standard.
• Child Protection: Training mandatory for all staff.

Complaints

• Renamed – previously called Patient Complaints. Now includes both staff and patient complaints.
• Page substantially edited and rewritten.
• Increased emphasis on time frames under the Code.
• Information about complaints register added. Practices can tell us where they keep this. We won't link to the complaints register itself as it is confidential.
• Printed information for patients moved to the Complaints Procedure page.
• GPDocs complaints flow chart removed. This has been replaced by a more detailed Complaints Procedure that is more specific about the designated time frames under the Code.

Complaints Procedure

• Rewritten as a clearer, step-by-step procedure that practices can follow. This procedure includes all the time frames specified in the Code.
• The new complaints procedure replaces the previous complaints flowchart.
• Practices can link to their complaints form or any other information they have available for patients.

Staff Complaints

• Page removed from GPDocs. Staff complaints are now included in the main complaints policy and should be managed following the same complaints procedure.

Child Protection

• Changed to say that all staff are trained to recognise the signs of abuse and know how to respond.
• This is a requirement of the RNZCGP guidance under the 2022 Foundation Standard.

COVID-19 Risk Mitigation

• Policy renamed, previously called Vaccination Requirements.
• Amended following guidance from the Health and Disability Commissioner that separating unvaccinated people is a breach of the Code.
• All references to unvaccinated people removed.
• Policy now focuses on mitigating risk for people who are symptomatic.

Isolating Infectious Patients

• Updated following guidance from Health and Disability Commissioner that separating people based on vaccination status is a breach of the Code.
• Now focuses on red-streaming symptomatic people only.

Triage, Triage Protocol, and Arriving Patients

• Blue COVID note at top of page amended.
• Now says to check whether patient is symptomatic before treating or making an appointment.
• Removed bullet about checking vaccination status.