Rural GPs in Australia will be able to access a new rural generalist anaesthesia qualification from 2023 in a collaboration between the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA), the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) and the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM).
The Diploma for Rural Generalist Anaesthesia will be available to rural generalist registrars seeking formal training and certification in anaesthesia who are enrolled in the RACGP Fellowship of Advanced Rural General Practice training program and/or Fellowship of the ACRRM training program.
A copy of the media release can be viewed here.
There are some frequently asked questions to assist in answering queries about the diploma. You can find these on the ANZCA website here. This page will be regularly updated by ANZCA based on the queries received.
For queries about the new DRGA that are not answered in the FAQs, please email drga@anzca.edu.au.
From the Joint Consultative Committee on Anaesthesia (JCCA) re applications for grandparenting to the DRGA
ANZCA has now opened applications for grandparenting to the DRGA. The JCCA notes that a copy of the JCCA letter of satisfactory completion of training/ statement of equivalence is a part of that application. It is recognised that some rural GP anaesthetists were issued with this documentation many years ago and prior to the information being routinely digitised. As such, some JCCA recipients may no longer have a copy of their original letter and some old letters from the JCCA may not have been added to digital files and are now not readily accessible.
The JCCA and the Tripartite DRGA committee have recognised this as a potential issue. To assist in preventing delays or confusion, the JCCA is comailing a list of JCCA recipients since 1996 to be provided to the DRGA committee for cross-referencing as required. This list is anticipated to be complete by the end of September, 2022. To conform with Privacy legislation, GPs will be emailed beforehand and given the opportunity to advise if they do not wish their details to be given to the DRGA.
This process is to support JCCA recipients where time and old analogue processes may have created gaps in documentation. This list is not a replacement or alternative to the provision of any requested documents that applicants have in their possession. The JCCA are keen to assist where there are problems with documentary records; similarly the DRGA are aware of the risk for applicants and both are working together to support applicants.