Joint Consultative Committee on Anaesthesia

The committee is responsible for the supervision and examination of GP registrars from the rural training stream of the Royal Australian College of GPs and Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine who are completing a 12-month advanced rural skills/advanced specialised training post in anaesthesia, using the Curriculum Statement in Anaesthesia as the basis of the training. The training includes:

• A 12-month training period in a JCCA-accredited post. 
• A satisfactory report from the director of the training department.

For further information, see the RACGP website.

The second core responsibility of the JCCA is the accreditation and recertification of existing general practitioner anaesthetists. This is done via the requirements in place for the Continuing Professional Development Program. The standard reference curriculum for this program is the Curriculum Statement in Anaesthesia.

The principles on which the JCCA makes and has made decisions are:

• There are areas of Australia where there will always be a requirement for GPs to be administering anaesthesia. This is mainly at present in small rural towns and some provincial cities, although there are some situations where GPs may and should work in cooperation with specialist anaesthetists.   
• These GPs must have appropriate training and must be providing safe anaesthesia. This training has been fully discussed in the Curriculum Statement in Anaesthesia. Other training in anaesthesia may be acceptable.

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