Foundation Standard assessments

Foundation Standards are the minimum standard that all practices need to meet to ensure that they are eligible for capitation. It is also now being used nationally to enable other services such as maternity, COVID-19 vaccination and access to shared IT systems such as CCCM.

The College of GPs are responsible for developing and reviewing the standard and as part of being part of Pinnacle we support you to meet the standard and assess your practice at no cost. You will have received an email if you are due to be assessed in the next five months, with some suggested dates for ensuring all information is uploaded.  We have tried to ensure these dates are just before expiry to enable continuity of services. If you go beyond expiry it can affect your capitation. 

The College have reviewed the standard and from 1 May 2022 all practices will be assessed against the updated standard. Key changes are:

• indicators have reduced from 17 to 15.
• criteria have reduced from 53 to 47.
• guidance has been refreshed.

Major changes are:

• clinical record review is no longer compulsory.
• all practice staff need to do complete training to identify child abuse and neglect – there are links as to what meets the criteria and there is online training. The online training can be done by one of your team members and then a documented training session is run by that person with all staff.
• infection control indicator has been strengthened applicable to the new New Zealand Standard.
• training required with handling certificates required for practices with certain hazardous substances – this is likely to be rare. 

These changes are covered in a webinar.