Latest news

PART 4: Patient participation | Insights into the RACGP Standards 6th edition
Building Better Practices: Insights into the RACGP Standards 6th edition
PART 4: Patient participation
Following the release of the draft the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) Standards for general practices 6th edition, industry consultation period and the commencement of the pilot program, our team is excited to provide you with a five-part content series exploring key themes within the proposed new edition of the RACGP Standards titled ‘Building Better Practices: Insights into the RACGP Standards 6th edition’.
Through this series, we aim to provide you with a greater understanding of some of the essential elements shaping the RACGP Standards 6th edition.
A key update within the 6th edition is the incorporation of consumer statements at each criterion across the Standards. The RACGP partnered with consumers to develop these statements, ensuring they capture the meaning and importance of each criterion from a patient perspective. These consumer statements help align the Standards with the needs, preferences, and expectations of patients, reinforcing a strong focus on patient-centred care
PART 1 looked into the Quintuple Aim of healthcare improvement and its role in Australian general practice, with our second instalment, PART 2, unpacking Standard 1 of the RACGP Standards 6th edition – ‘Foundations of general practice’. PART 3 explored Standard 2 of the draft RACGP Standards 6th edition which revolves around ‘Clinical Governance’ and in Part 4 we delve into Standard 3 ‘Patient Participation’.
DISCLAIMER
The information contained within this content-series is general in nature and has not been provided or reviewed by the RACGP. The RACGP Standards 6th edition are still in draft format and will be undergoing further review and updates as part of the pilot program and consultation period. The details of the 6th edition are subject to change and therefore this information has been collated based on the information provided to us at the time of publishing. Information regarding each proposed new Standard also discusses general themes associated with each particular topic.
Patient participation within general practice
Patient participation is an essential strategy to support safe and quality care in general practice. By actively engaging patients in their healthcare journey, practices can enhance patient satisfaction, improve health outcomes, and foster a culture of continuous improvement.
Recognising the important role patients play in their healthcare journey, the World Health Organization (WHO) has adopted a global strategy on people-centred and integrated health services. This strategy recognises that healthcare systems must go beyond treating illnesses and focus on delivering services that are tailored to the needs, values, and preferences of the people they serve. Emphasis is placed on the importance of engaging and empowering individuals, families, and communities to take an active role in their health and well-being.
The Royal Australian College for General Practices (RACGP) support the WHO’s people-centred care strategy. Practices that adopt these principles can contribute to global efforts to improve health systems, enhance patient empowerment, and deliver care that is responsive, equitable, and sustainable.
The current draft of the RACGP Standards 6th edition places significant emphasis on patient participation in the form of Standard 2, with key focus on the delivery of patient-centred care. This approach to care benefits the patient as well as the healthcare team, fostering a collaborative and transparent environment that prioritises the patient’s needs, preferences, and experiences.
Patient-centred care has been shown to increase treatment adherence, enhance the quality of care, and empower patients to take an active role in their health management. As a result, practices that embrace this standard can better align with the broader goals of quality improvement, equity, and safety in healthcare.
This article explores the practical applications of Standard 2: Patient Participation as part of the draft 6th edition Standards, offering tips and actions for practice teams to effectively integrate or strengthen the requirements of this standard into their day-to-day operations.
Understanding Standard 2: Patient Participation overview
Standard 2: Patient Participation of the draft RACGP Standards 6th edition highlights the importance of engaging patients in meaningful ways. This includes involving them in decision-making, seeking their feedback to improve services, and ensuring transparency in how their input shapes practice operations. It also emphasises the need to address health literacy and accessibility to ensure all patients can actively participate.
In its current draft format, this Standard is made up of 10 Criterion and 15 mandatory Indicators. Your team is likely to already be implementing majority of these requirements under the 5th edition Standards, however at this stage the RACGP has highlighted the following differences relating to patient participation in the 6th edition:
Criterion PP.4 – Informed consent has been broadened to include informed consent for third-party presence arrangements, clinical procedures, and the provision of medicines that align with legislative requirements and best practice.
As part of the current accreditation requirements under this Criterion, your practice must:
- Facilitate the documentation of the patient’s consent to the presence of a third party arranged by your practice.
- Provide processes for clinicians to obtain informed consent for clinical procedures and provision of medicines.
Criterion PP.8 – Engaging consumers asks your practice to meaningfully engage with consumers to monitor, review and improve care. This strengthens the outcomes focus of continuous quality improvement, asking your practice to work with patients and embed their contributions without prescribing a specific methodology.
As part of the current accreditation requirements under this Criterion, your practice must:
- Engage with consumers to improve care using direct engagement.
- Allow for communication from consumers through indirect engagement.
When looking at the current requirements for Standard 2: Patient Participation, there are a number of practical tips your team can adopt to work toward meeting the associated accreditation requirements.
Based on the first draft of the RACGP Standard 6th edition, our team has broken down components of the accreditation requirements associated with each Criterion to enhance patient participation and are not all-encompassing. Read our quick guide below:
PP1: Information about your practice
Tip: Undertake a quick check to make sure, at a minimum, the following information is available to consumers and is up-to-date:
o Your practice’s address and telephone numbers
o Consulting hours and details of arrangements for care outside normal opening hours
appointment types
o Your practice’s billing principles
o A list of practitioners
o Your practice’s communication policy, including when and how it receives and returns telephone
o Calls and electronic communications
o Your practice’s policy for managing patient health information (or its principles and how full details can be obtained from your practice)
o How to provide feedback or make a complaint to your practice
o Details on the range of services your practice provides
Remember to check all mediums this information is provided and ensure your process for making checks and updates is being followed.
Consultation and out-of-pocket fees are a common consumer query so make sure this information is clear and stands out. Remind clinicians to share this information with patients prior to treatments or procedures as appropriate.
Action: Regularly review the accessibility and readability of your information, ensuring it meets diverse patient needs, including translations or formats for visually impaired patients. Utilise a variety of communication mediums to provide relevant information to your patients (refer to PP2 requirements for further details) and utilise the RACGP’s General Practice tool kit for guidance around your legal requirements for advertising a general practice.
PP2: Communication with patients
Tip: It’s helpful to use multiple communication channels, such as phone calls, SMS reminders, and email to keep patients informed about appointments, test results, and practice updates. Ensure you have appropriate procedures in place in regards to patient communications and if using social media to communicate general health information be cautious that this is being done in a way that enhances patient care.
Your team also needs to ensure your communication systems inform consumers to call 000 if they have an emergency.
Action: Train staff on clear and respectful communication and all associated communication policies and procedures relevant to their role. Keep your policies and procedures up-to-date to reflect your practice’s and patients’ communication needs.
PP3: Respectful, culturally appropriate and culturally safe care
Tip: Encourage all staff to undergo regular cultural safety training to build awareness of cultural diversity and address biases, ensuring respectful and inclusive care for all patients. You must pay particular attention to the delivery of respectful and culturally appropriate care to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, undertaking a range of activities to support this requirement.
You may find it helpful to undertake cultural audits to identify any patient populations that may be beneficial to focus on.
Action: Facilitate culturally safe care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients while also recognising diversity and care requirements of your wider patient population. Establish and maintain a cultural safety policy for your practice, incorporating mandatory cultural safety training for staff and tracking completion in your training register.
PP4: Informed consent
Tip: Make sure you provide patients with enough information to make informed decisions regarding their care. Informed consent must also be gained for the presence of a third party during a consultation (e.g. medical student), procedures being undertaking during a consultation and provision of medicines.
Action: Ensure your policy and procedures for obtaining and documenting each patient’s informed consent is in line with privacy laws and their confidentiality rights. Encourage shared decision-making by training clinicians to discuss risks, benefits, and alternatives of treatments in a way patients can understand.
PP5: Accessibility of services
TIP: Your practice must comply with the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (amended 2018). You need to ensure that people with disability or impairment can access your practice and its services in ways that maintain their dignity, this includes physical access and non-physical access.
Action: Ensure you have infrastructure and processes that enable patients with disabilities or impairment, regardless of their abilities, to access your services.
PP6: Health promotion and prevention care
Tip: To ensure your team is sharing relevant and up-to-date health promotion, illness prevention and preventative care information with consumers, you could utilise patient population data to identify trends, have a range of materials available in your practice waiting room and ensure maintenance of immunisation registers for example.
Action: Share up-tp-date health promotion, illness prevention and preventative care information with individual patients based on their healthcare history and in line with privacy and confidentiality laws. For health information which enhances health and care for large patient populations, information could be shared via a range of communication mechanisms (e.g. patient newsletters, social media etc.).
PP7: Open disclosure and complaints
Tip: Visit this link to view the Australian Open Disclosure Framework and keep on top of any changes or updates to ensure your practice’s continual compliance.
Consider negative patient feedback as an opportunity for learning and improvement. Try your best to resolve any issues in a reasonable time and in line with complaints management policy. Put your medical defence organisation’s and insurer’s details in an easy-to-locate spot in case you need to contact them for further information or advice in a timely manner.
Action: Support contractors and practice staff to ensure they can:
- Respectfully explain to patients when things go wrong
- Offer an expression of regret or genuine apology (if warranted)
- Explain what steps have been taken so that the mistake is not repeated.
Consider developing and maintaining an open disclosure process, policy and guidelines to support your practice team with applying the Australian Open Disclosure Framework.
Implement an effective complaints management process, taking time to review and enhance this process on a regular basis, and following adverse events, incidents and/or near misses. Make sure you maintain and review a complaints management register and include how you will advise consumers of the progress and outcome of their complaint.
PP8: Engaging consumers
Tip: Identify and create opportunities to engage consumers/patients to allow for opportunistic engagement and two-way communication, on an ongoing basis rather than at one point-in-time.
For guidance and ideas you could utilise the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality Healthcare’s resource which has been created to support the implementation of the Partnering with Consumers Standard within their National Safety and Quality Primary and Community Healthcare Standards.
Action: Decide on a range of engagement approaches (direct and indirect inclusive of PREMs and PROMs) then plan and schedule consumer engagement opportunities to ensure collaboration to enhance patient care.
BONUS: As an AGPAL client, CFEP Surveys provides exclusive discounts on their PREMs and PROMs offerings. Reach out to a member of their team at info@cfepsurveys.com.au or phone (07) 3855 2093 to discuss your consumer engagement needs.
PP9: Responsive system for patient care
Tip: Allocate a Clinical Team member to have primary responsibility of triage requirements. Ensure they keep on top of any required staff training to particularly support in the identification of urgent care. This needs to be delivered for clinical and administrative staff.
For guidance and ideas you could utilise the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality Healthcare’s resource which has been created to support the implementation of the Partnering with Consumers Standard within their National Safety and Quality Primary and Community Healthcare Standards.
Create a booking schedule that allows for various appointment types to meet consumer needs, allowing for some flexibility to support triaging requirements.
Action: Write triage responsibilities into the position description of the Clinical Team member with primary responsibility. Schedule triage training as required-it could be helpful to include it as part of your induction process. If Administrative staff members need to access patient health records so they can inform the clinical team of triage responses, ensure they are trained and aware of how comply with requirements relating to confidentiality of patient health records.
Review, monitor and update your booking offerings accordingly as a result of patient needs, trends or seasonal requirements (e.g. more appointments with nurses during flu vaccination season). Provide patient communications around appointment types (e.g. in-person and telehealth).
PP10: Care when your practice is not open
Tip: Clearly communicate after-hours care arrangements through voicemail messages, signage, and your website, including contact details for relevant after-hours services.
Action: Establish agreements with after-hours services or locum providers and ensure they share patient care information with your practice promptly. Check these service providers meet Australian professional obligations and communicate this to patients.
Final thoughts
Standard 2: Patient Participation is a vital component of the draft RACGP Standards 6th edition, offering an opportunity for your practice to deepen your commitment to patient-centred care. By integrating or enhancing the tips and actions outlined above, your practice can further create a culture of collaboration and trust with your patients and local community members. Patient participation with your practice ensures that by hearing, valuing, reflecting and acting upon their feedback, ideas and experiences, they are actively shape the future of their care.
As the healthcare landscape continues to evolve, the emphasis on patient participation underscores a broader shift toward more inclusive, effective, and equitable healthcare systems. Embracing these requirements supports your team with your accreditation but more importantly a commitment to continual provision and improvement of exceptional patient care.
Transition information
The RACGP has stipulated that practices can choose to be accredited under either the 5th or 6th edition Standards for the first 12 months following the publication of the 6th edition – which is currently planned for early 2026. After this transition period, all practices seeking accreditation must meet the requirements of the 6th edition Standards.
Our team will continue to provide you with updates as we work with the RACGP as they refine and test the RACGP Standards 6th edition.
We appreciate your patience as we wait for further information regarding timelines and program readiness. We’re committed to providing you with timely updates to ensure you and your team are informed and prepared for this transition when the time comes.
For current accreditation support with the RACGP Standards 5th edition, contact the AGPAL Team:
P: 1300 362 111
E: info@agpal.com.au