Accredited general practice
You may have seen the accreditation symbol on this site or on our wall. Here is what it actually means — and how to check it for yourself.
In short
What accreditation means
Accreditation is an independent check of how a general practice is run. An assessor from outside the practice visits, looks at how things actually work here — not only what is written down — and measures the practice against a national set of standards.
It is voluntary. A practice does not have to be accredited to operate. Practices choose to be assessed, voluntarily and independently, because it is the recognised way of showing that the systems patients rely on have been examined by somebody independent.
The standards are the Standards for general practices written by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, and the assessment is part of the National General Practice Accreditation Scheme.
Our accreditation
Hinterland Medical Centre is accredited
This practice is accredited by AGPAL, a not-for-profit accreditation provider, against the RACGP Standards.
Accreditation runs on a three-year cycle. It is not a certificate that is earned once — the practice is reassessed, and is expected to keep improving between assessments rather than only at the end.
The detail
What is actually assessed
The standards are grouped into three modules covering seventeen standards in total. In practical terms, an assessor looks at things like this:
The care you receive
- Communication and patient participation — that you are given the information you need and are part of decisions about your care.
- Rights and needs of patients — including privacy, consent, interpreters and how complaints are handled.
- Comprehensive care and clinical management — how ongoing and complex health problems are managed over time.
- Health promotion and preventive activities — reminders, screening and the things done before you get sick.
How the practice is run
- Access to care — appointments, after-hours arrangements, and how urgent problems are handled.
- Practice governance and management — who is responsible for what, and how the practice is organised.
- Qualifications of the clinical team, and the education and training of everyone who works here.
- The medical practice itself — the building, the equipment, and the medicines kept on site.
Safety and your records
- Reducing the risk of infection — cleaning, sterilisation and safe handling.
- Information management and the content of patient health records — how your health information is recorded, stored and protected.
- Clinical risk management — how mistakes and near-misses are identified and prevented.
- Quality improvement and clinical indicators — measuring the practice's own performance and acting on it.
Being straight with you
What accreditation does not tell you
It is about systems, not about any one appointment
Accreditation means the practice's systems, records, safety and training were examined against a national standard and met it. It is not a rating of individual doctors, and it is not a promise about the outcome of any particular visit. It is a reasonable thing to weigh up, not the only thing.
Check it yourself
Do not take our word for it
AGPAL publishes a public register of accredited practices. You can look this practice up by suburb or postcode and see the listing for yourself — the register is theirs, not ours, and we cannot change what it says.
Our accreditation was last checked against that register on 16 August 2026.