Stop firefighting your practice. Start running one that runs itself.
Every year you delay, the same three problems come back: a surveyor finds what you missed, a staff issue blows up because there was no system, and you're back doing the books at 11pm. Banksia Consulting fixes the systems so this is the last cycle you do it the hard way.
You didn't train for six years to become a compliance officer.
Most of the principals and practice managers we meet aren't negligent — they're stretched thin, doing this alongside everything else, with no one to tell them what "good" actually looks like.
The pre-accreditation scramble
Three weeks out, you're finding gaps you didn't know existed, pulling all-nighters on policy documents nobody's read since the last cycle.
The HR issue nobody wants to touch
A staff conflict, an underperformer, an award classification you're not sure is right — and no one in the practice is trained to handle it properly.
QI that exists on paper only
An audit was done once, for the accreditation folder, and hasn't been looked at since. If a surveyor asked what changed as a result, there's no good answer.
You, holding it all in your head
If you took two weeks off, would the practice still run properly? For most principals and managers we meet, the honest answer is no.
This isn't a paperwork problem. It's a risk to your practice.
Failed or delayed accreditation
Puts practice incentive payments and your ability to bill certain items at risk, and creates exactly the last-minute panic you're trying to avoid.
An HR issue handled badly
One mishandled dismissal or unaddressed conflict can cost far more in legal exposure, turnover and lost goodwill than the system that would have prevented it.
A safety incident with no audit trail
Without genuine QI in place, you find out about a systemic issue when it becomes a complaint or a significant event — not before.
Burnout, quietly, at the top
The principal or manager who carries all of this alone eventually either leaves, gets sick, or stops caring — and the practice feels it for years.
Here's what changes once the systems are in place.
This is the actual transformation clinics engage us for — not a binder of policies, but a practice that runs differently day to day.
Six practice areas, one point of contact.
Most clinics end up with a compliance consultant, a separate HR advisor, and a QI coordinator who never talk to each other. Banksia Consulting brings all six areas under one advisor who understands how they connect.
Accreditation & compliance
Gap analysis against RACGP Standards, accreditation project management, mock surveys and remediation plans.
Quality improvement
PDSA-based QI programs, clinical audit design, incident management and clinical governance frameworks.
HR & workforce
Recruitment and onboarding systems, position descriptions, performance frameworks, culture and retention.
Operations & performance
Patient flow, billing and MBS review, room utilisation, and multi-site standardisation for growing groups.
Risk & policy
Policy and procedure manuals, privacy and record-keeping compliance, WHS systems, continuity planning.
Leadership & workshops
Coaching for principals and practice managers, and tailored workshops built on The General Practice Playbook.
The Banksia Method.
The same logic clinicians already trust, applied to the practice itself: diagnose before you treat, then keep monitoring so problems don't return.
Diagnose
A structured audit of compliance, QI, HR and operations, benchmarked against current standards, ranked by risk.
Design
A tailored plan sequenced by urgency and by what's realistic for your practice's size and resourcing.
Deploy
Hands-on delivery — policies drafted, training run, difficult conversations supported, systems built.
Sustain
A maintenance rhythm your team can run alone, with light-touch reviews to catch drift early.
"Compliance should be the by-product of a well-run practice — never the goal chased at the last minute before an audit."
Our mission is simple: equip clinics with the systems they need so clinicians spend their time on patients, not paperwork.
Advice is independent of any product, insurer or software vendor.
Every recommendation checked against current standards and legislation.
A workable system adopted today beats a perfect policy left in a drawer.
Sensitive HR and compliance information is handled in strict confidence.
Engagements are built to show visible progress within weeks, not just at the end.
Associate Professor Bernard Shiu — running a four-site, five-clinic practice group, not just advising on one.
Banksia Consulting is led by Associate Professor Bernard Shiu (BS, MD, FRACGP, GAICD), Clinical Director of Banksia Medical Centre — a multi-site general practice spanning four locations and five clinics across the Geelong region. Under his leadership, Banksia Medical Centre was named Victoria and National General Practice of the Year 2023, and Bernard was recognised as Victoria GP of the Year 2020.
He holds an academic appointment as Affiliated Associate Professor at Deakin University, has served as an RACGP examiner, supervisor and question-bank writer for over a decade, and founded and chairs the RACGP's ELPIC (Energy Limiting and Post Infection Conditions) Specific Interests Group. During the COVID-19 pandemic he served as Deputy Chair of the RACGP Victorian Faculty, running regular webinars to support Victorian GPs through some of the country's longest lockdowns. He is also a Board Director of WestVic Primary Health Network.
That experience — running a growing multi-site group while examining, supervising and advising at a college level — became The General Practice Playbook (subtitled The GP Compass: The Australian Guide to Starting Up for Success), with a foreword by Professor Michael Kidd AO and endorsements from Dr Mukesh Haikerwal AC, Dr John Deery (Chair, AGPA) and Professor Karen Price (past RACGP President). Publishing it brought a wave of new enquiries from clinics who wanted more than a book — they wanted a partner. Banksia Consulting is that partner.
One advisor who sees the whole practice.
Runs a multi-site group, doesn't just consult on one
Four locations, five clinics, across the Geelong region — the standardisation problems you're facing are ones Bernard solves in his own practice group.
College-level standards, not guesswork
Over a decade as an RACGP examiner, supervisor and question-bank writer means the compliance bar is set from inside the system that sets it.
Published, third-party credibility
The General Practice Playbook — foreword by Professor Michael Kidd AO — gives you a documented methodology, not an opinion.
Independent advice
Recommendations are never shaped by a product, insurer or vendor relationship.
We take on [X] new practices per quarter so every client gets direct, hands-on attention — not a template rolled out at scale.
If your next accreditation cycle, a growing HR issue, or a QI gap is already on your mind, the practical constraint is our calendar, not your budget. Editable note: replace [X] with your real onboarding capacity before publishing.
The next accreditation cycle is coming either way.
The only question is whether your practice meets it calmly, on schedule, with systems that hold — or scrambles again. Book a confidential practice diagnosis and find out exactly where you stand and what it would take to fix it.