Grandparenting for award of the RGA

As this is a qualification for rural generalists, fellowship with one of the general practice colleges is required.

Trainees of ACRRM and RACGP who have not completed all requirements for fellowship by the closing date will be granted an extension until 31 December 2025.

Specialists from other colleges who practice in the rural environment will not be eligible for award of the RGA.

The JCCA letter of satisfactory completion of training is the current standard for rural GP anaesthesia and must be held at the time of application. A JCCA statement of equivalence will also be accepted.  

Rural generalists who do not hold the JCCA letter of completion of training or a JCCA statement of equivalence will not be eligible for this grandparenting process. They will have the opportunity to apply via the RPL process to transition to the RGA.

See below Options for rural generalist anaesthetists who do not hold the JCCA.

Credentialing occurs in rural and remote hospitals or regions and is valid for a defined time period. The credentialing must be current, include anaesthesia services and be for a rural location defined as Modified Monash Model 3-7.

Current epidural and paediatric competency will not be assessed for the purposes of grandparenting.

Scope of practice in your current workplace will continue to be determined by your credentialing committee. 

Rural is defined as Modified Monash Model 3-7.

It is acknowledged that practice patterns vary. A minimum of 12 weeks service in a rural location per year, for each of the preceding 2 years, will usually be required to demonstrate rural commitment.

There will be discretion applied in how commitment to rural practice is assessed. The guiding principle will be if the services being provided require a trained rural generalist anaesthetist as opposed to those services provided by rural generalists without advances skills training in anaesthesia.

Please visit the grandparenting FAQs for further information.

 

Applicants must meet the JCCA, RACGP or ACRRM anaesthesia CPD standard. More recent JCCA registrars will need to show evidence of involvement in CPD.
 

This will require meeting all requirements of RGA competencies including paediatrics and epidurals. Credit will be awarded for past training and experience. You may need to complete in some training time in addition to passing the RGA Standardised Structured Scenario-based assessment (RGA-SSSA).

Currently, to be employed as a rural generalist anaesthetist you need to provide your hospital’s credentialing committee with evidence of appropriate training and experience in anaesthetic practice.

It is anticipated that in the immediate future credentialing committees will continue to recognise similar evidence of training and experience in anaesthetic practice as they have in the past.