In short: Private dental practices in Australia accredit against the National Safety and Quality Primary and Community Healthcare (NSQPCH) Standards, assessed by QIP, with practices registering through the ADA. DocHelp does the gap analysis, the evidence build, the self-assessment and the assessment preparation.
If your practice was accredited under the first edition of the NSQHS Standards, your next cycle is not a repeat of your last one. The framework changed. Three standards, sixty-five actions, different numbering, different evidence, and a reprocessing standard with mandatory rules behind it.
NSQPCH · QIP · ADA · AS 5369:2023 · Melbourne & Australia-wide
The Primary and Community Healthcare Standards were launched by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care in October 2021, and accreditation assessments against them commenced on 1 May 2024. The Australian Dental Association worked with the Commission on the framework for dental, and QIP is the approved accrediting agency that assesses practices against it. Practices register through the ADA’s website.
For a practice already accredited to the first edition of the NSQHS Standards, the transition happens at the commencement of the new accreditation cycle.
There is a second trap in the transition itself. QIP’s desktop-only assessment model (no virtual, no on-site) is intended for accredited practices transitioning to these Standards, and can only be completed for one or two assessment cycles.
Who is accountable for safety and quality in a practice where the owner is also chairside all day. Scope of clinical practice for each dentist, hygienist, therapist and prosthetist. Risk register, incidents, complaints and the quality improvement activity that closes the loop. Records, imaging, results and recall.
Informed financial consent as well as clinical consent: treatment plans, quotes, alternatives and the risks discussed, documented. Health literacy in the material you hand patients. Capacity and substitute decision-making. Feedback that is collected, analysed and visibly acted on.
The heavy one. Infection prevention and control, aseptic technique, sterilisation and reprocessing against AS 5369:2023, water lines and water quality, single-use versus reusable, medication safety and antimicrobial stewardship, medical emergencies in the chair, and escalation when a patient deteriorates.
In December 2023, AS 5369:2023 superseded both AS/NZS 4815:2006 and AS/NZS 4187:2014. A Commission advisory, mandatory for accrediting agencies to implement, sets the rules assessors apply.
Services using critical and semi-critical reusable devices that require reprocessing must undertake a gap analysis against AS 5369:2023, with implementation of an action plan commenced. The Commission publishes a transition resource to help conduct it.
Where risks are identified, mitigation has to be implemented and routinely monitored and reported to whoever holds clinical governance. The advisory names the areas: segregation of clean and dirty activities, storage of reprocessed devices, and the cleaning, disinfecting and sterilising equipment itself.
A water quality risk assessment with monitoring in line with manufacturers’ recommendations. The economically useful life of reprocessing and water filtration equipment recorded in the asset register. Replacement equipment addressing identified infection risks, and second-hand replacements held to the same standard.
A service commencing operations must align its processes, equipment and facility with the reprocessing standards, manufacturers’ guidelines, the Australian Guidelines and jurisdictional requirements from the start.
The Commission’s advisory on not applicable actions sets a closed list for healthcare services generally, and a separate advisory sets a different list for private dental practices.
Whichever list applies, the mechanics are the same. An exclusion is applied for in advance, with evidence that the action carries little or no risk of patient harm in your context. The agency makes an initial determination before the assessment. The assessor verifies it on the day.
For private dental practices it is voluntary. Most public dental services are required to be accredited.
Practices register for accreditation under the Primary and Community Healthcare Standards through the ADA’s website, which gives access to ADA support resources, and QIP runs the assessment.
For a practice starting from an ordinary standard of documentation, plan on three to six months of real work before submission, driven mainly by two things: infection control and reprocessing evidence, and any consumer feedback cycle you need to run and act on.
Requirements and advisories change. Everything on this page reflects the position as we understood it in August 2026, from the Commission’s published Standards and advisories, QIP’s published program information and the ADA’s. Confirm the current position with QIP and the ADA before you commit to dates.