Regular Practice Reviews

One of the key roles of the Medical Council of New Zealand (Council) is to ensure recertification programmes for all doctors are robust, help assure the public doctors are competent and fit to practice, and improve the current high standards of practice in New Zealand.
Regular practice review (RPR) is a quality improvement process. It’s primary purpose is to help maintain and improve the standards of the medical profession by helping individual doctors identify aspects of their performance that could be improved, benefiting not only their own professional development but also the quality of care their patients receive.

RPR has been implemented through the InPractice programme since July 2013.

RPR involves:
Pre-visit: Review of the doctor’s professional development e-Portfolio, prescribing and laboratory test reports, phone call with the collegial relationship provider and multisource and/or patient feedback
Practice visit: Interviews with the doctor and in some cases colleagues, observation of consultations, review of records and clinical reasoning
Post-visit: Report delivered to the doctor and Council summarising findings
Post-visit follow-up: by the InPractice Medical Advisor with doctors where areas of concern or non-compliance with requirements were identified through the review.
The design of RPR is based on evidence about what works in improving practice.

All doctors enrolled in the InPractice programme who have held general registration for a period of four years or more are required to participate in a RPR once every four years.

If a doctor is selected for an RPR while they are undergoing a review process with the Medical Council, they should advise InPractice, as they may be eligible to have their RPR deferred.