National ‘Closing the Gap’ Day 2015

Today marks 10 years since the ‘Closing the Gap’ initiative was launched – an initiative stated by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia’s through improvements to Indigenous Australians’ health and wellbeing.

Australian General Practice Accreditation Limited (AGPAL)’s CEO, Dr Stephen Clark stated:

“We have been fortunate to see first-hand, the hard work, passion and dedication made by practice teams across Australia in support of improving the safety and quality of care provided to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

AGPAL currently accredits over 200 Aboriginal Medical Services, Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services, and Indigenous Health Organisations within Australia and are extremely proud of the positive contributions they are making to the health and well-being of their patients.”

Accreditation is just one of the key activities which supports the objectives of the ‘Closing the Gap’ campaign; supporting continuous quality improvements to contribute to raising the health and life expectancy of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to that of the non-Indigenous population within a generation : to close the gap by 2030.

To find out more about ‘Closing the Gap’ and for the chance to submit your own pledge to supporting Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, you’re encouraged to visit Oxfam Australia’s website: https://www.oxfam.org.au/what-we-do/indigenous-australia/close-the-gap/

More information about accreditation:

AGPAL accreditation is conducted triennially, assessing in excess of 4,200 general practices against an established set of profession standards for general practices – the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP).

The benefits of accreditation include improved patient safety and overall health outcomes, risk reduction, improved practice efficiency and environment, insurance benefits and access to the Practice Incentives Program (PIP).

For members of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, accreditation further reflects a practice’s commitment to Indigenous identification to ensure culturally appropriate healthcare, in a culturally safe environment.

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For more information about AGPAL accreditation, please contact the team on 1300 362 111 or info@agpal.com.au

For more information about the Interpretive guide to the RACGP Standards for general practices 4th edition for Aboriginal community controlled health services or the RACGP Standards for general practices 4th edition, please visit www.racgp.org.au.