Development of Standards for residential aged care facilities

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has commenced work on the development of Standards for residential aged care facilities (the Standards).

The first edition of the RACGP Standards for residential aged care facilities (working title) is being developed in response to:

• the barriers GPs face when providing patient care in residential aged care facilities
• a current lack of standards that focus on the equipment, systems and infrastructure needed to support GPs working in these facilities
• recommendations made by the Productivity Commission Inquiry into Aged Care (2011) and anticipation of the work of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety (2019).

To ensure the standards produced by the RACGP are meaningful and applicable to the profession working within the residential aged care setting, the RACGP is inviting feedback from you during the consultation period. Feedback from the healthcare sector will help us better understand the challenges and barriers we face when delivering general practice services in these settings.

Your insight is crucial to ensure the Standards are relevant, accessible, and support quality and safety in residential aged care facilities.

The feedback we receive from you will be considered by the working group and will be used to inform the development of the Standards.

In addition to the drafts released for consultation, the RACGP will pilot the Standards later in 2019 to test their applicability in the residential aged care setting. We also seek your interest in participating in a pilot site for this stage of the Standards development.

GPs are invited to complete the survey and express your interest in participating in this process. This survey closes on Monday 8 July 2019.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss this invitation to participate further, email StandardsforRACF@racgp.org.au or call 03 8699 0566.