Aim: To determine whether the requirements of the reaccreditation programme of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (RNZCGP) have changed the amount and type of continuing medical education (CME) done by the participating general practitioners.
Method: A written questionnaire was sent to 200 randomly selected general practitioners doing the RNZCGP reaccreditation programme.
Results: The response rate was 82%. Although almost half the general practitioners had been motivated to spend more time on CME by the reaccreditation programme, for most this was a small increase. However, there was a trend towards selection of higher quality courses and towards increasing the time spent on educational activities more likely to result in changed behaviour.
Conclusion: The RNZCGP reaccreditation programme is having beneficial effects on the CME activities of many of the participating general practitioners.