Most of you would have heard by now the winds of change blowing through the general practice community with the launch of the RACGP’s new 4th edition Standards for General Practices. The development of the new edition was overseen by an expert committee consisting of GPs, representatives from the Australian Association of Practice Managers and Australian Practice Nurses Association, and a consumer delegate.

There were several key drivers in the development of the new edition standards including: the evolution of practice teams (where nurses are becoming more involved in the delivery of care and sharing the responsibility of quality and safety systems); a desire to incorporate key components of the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards (developed by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care); and to support a national accreditation scheme.

Other influential factors were: the evolution of E-health and progression toward standardised health records; consumer engagement and the introduction of a validated questionnaire by the RACGP; and, the recording of Indigenous status to enable GPs to better address known health risks and work toward closing the gap.

The Standards contain the same 5 sections. However there are 3 less criteria and 38 less indicators, 12 new flagged indicators and 4 new criteria, and no new standards.

The new Standards aim to make all members of the general practice team accountable for patient safety and high quality clinical care by implementing a framework for good governance and continuous quality improvement. From 1 November, 2011 any practice registering for accreditation or reaccreditation on or after this date, must be assessed using the new 4th Edition Standards. A transitional period from the 1 July to 31 October will allow practices to choose which edition they would like to be assessed against, for any practice registering during this time.