Why apply for accreditation?
Accreditation allows medical practitioners and nurse practitioners to prescribe opioid pharmacotherapies for up to 300 patients with opioid dependence. It also authorises you to prescribe both buprenorphine and methadone, including starting patients on methadone treatment.
Without accreditation, medical practitioners can still prescribe opioid pharmacotherapies but are limited to 30 patients— 20 on buprenorphine and 10 low-risk methadone patients transferred to their care—and cannot initiate methadone treatment.
Who can apply for accreditation?
Medical Practitioners and Nurse Practitioners can apply for accreditation to prescribe opioid pharmacotherapies for opioid dependence in New South Wales after completing the OTAC and undertaking a clinical placement.
How to apply?
After completing the OTAC course and your clinical placement, submit your application for accreditation using the button below if you haven’t already done so. You will need to upload a current curriculum vitae (CV), OTAC Letter of Completion and provide details about yourself, your workplace, and your clinical placement supervisor.
What happens next?
Once your clinical placement supervisor submits their assessment, your application will be reviewed at the next NSW Ministry of Health Opioid Pharmacotherapy Subcommittee (OPS) meeting. In most cases, no further action is required from you, though the OPS Secretariat may contact you if additional information is needed.
To ensure your application is considered at an upcoming OPS meeting, your placement assessment and application must be submitted at least 10 days before the scheduled OPS meeting date.
OPS Meeting and Application Dates
The Opioid Pharmacotherapy Subcommittee meets to review applications approximately every six weeks. Below are the upcoming OPS meeting dates and application deadlines.
| Applications due by | OPS Meeting date |
|---|---|
| COB 11 August 2026 | 20 August 2026 |
| COB 22 September 2026 | 1 October 2026 |
Accreditation steps
