Clutha Health First has joined other primary health care practices in the country in meeting the standards set for New Zealand general practice.
The hospital's general practice was recently awarded the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners' Cornerstone accreditation.
Clutha Health First chief executive Ray Anton said the accreditation was a ''warrant of fitness'' for the hospital's GP services.
Cornerstone provides a critical way for practices to demonstrate their commitment to high-quality patient-centred health care and assure patient safety. Practices are required to meet more than 200 standards reviewed by two experienced assessors.
Clutha Health First prided itself of providing the highest quality health services for its community, Mr Anton said.
''In achieving Cornerstone accreditation we have been able to demonstrate a safe environment for not only our patients, but also a healthy environment for our staff. The standards and the audit process gives ways to benchmark our GP practice.''
Clutha Health First General Practice is one of 22 practices within the Southern PHO which have achieved this accreditation, out of a total of 94 practices.
Dr Abraham Visagie's practice was also accredited at the same time, as the systems and processes used by Dr Visagie are the same as the Clutha Health First GP Practice.
The report from the auditors indicated that ''the team's commitment to quality and continued quality improvement is to be highly commended''.
The Cornerstone programme reviews practices against the standard and accredits practices on the recommendation of Health and Disability Auditing New Zealand, the designated audit agency that works in partnership with the college.
