Royal Australian College of General Practitioners
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) is the professional body for general practitioners (GPs) in Australia. The RACGP is responsible for maintaining standards for quality clinical practice, education and training, and research in Australian general practice. The RACGP represents over 40,000 members across metropolitan, urban, rural and remote Australia.[1]
Abbreviation
RACGP
1958
Registered charity
Education, training, standards and advocacy of GPs
- Australia
Australia
40,000
Dr Nicole Higgins
420
The RACGP develops resources and guidelines, advocates for GPs on issues that affect their practice, and develop standards that general practices use to ensure high quality healthcare.[2]
Fellowship and examinations[edit]
Fellowship of the RACGP[edit]
RACGP Fellowship is the admission to the specialty of general practice. It is an important recognition from the RACGP and the profession of general practice, and represents excellence in general practice.
In 1996, the Australian Government adopted Fellowship of the RACGP (FRACGP) as the standard for certifying competence to deliver unsupervised general practice services in any general practice setting in Australia – urban, regional, rural or remote.
Fellowship of the RACGP allows GPs to:
Continued Professional Development[edit]
CPD program[edit]
The RACGP Continued Professional Development (CPD) program supports Australian GPs to provide the best possible care for patients. It does this by recognising ongoing education and promoting the development and maintenance of general practice skills and lifelong learning.
Medicare Australia requires all GPs who access any Medicare program or service to participate and complete all requirements of a recognised CPD program.
In the absence of fellowship of any of the specialty colleges, a GP will typically take up participation of the QI&CPD program in order to satisfy medical registration requirements with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA), the national medical registration body. Participation in the QI&CPD program is not equivalent to Fellowship of the RACGP.
Advocacy[edit]
The RACGP advocates for GPs and general practice, promoting the importance of patient safety, quality care, coordination of care, whole patient care, better recognition and reward for GPs, and investment into primary healthcare infrastructure, teams, training, and technology. The breadth of the RACGP's work is reflected by its various advocacy efforts.
Publications and events[edit]
Australian Journal of General Practice[edit]
The RACGP publishes the Australian Journal of General Practice (AJGP), Australia's only peer-reviewed scholarly journal for GPs. All articles are subject to a peer-review process before they are accepted for publication. The journal is indexed in MEDLINE, Index Medicus and Science Citation Index Expanded.
Standards[edit]
The RACGP has developed and published the Standards for general practice since July 1996.[5] The current edition is the RACGP Standards for general practice (5th edition),[6] which launched in October 2017.[7][8]
The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care administers the National General Practice Accreditation (NGPA) Scheme, which supports the consistent accreditation assessment of Australian general practices against the RACGP Standards for general practices.[9]
newsGP[edit]
newsGP combines clinical articles directly relating to the treatment of patients with professional articles on policy, procedures or managing a practice. newsGP covers news from the RACGP, explaining position statements and advocacy efforts.
newsGP features articles, profiles and opinion pieces.
Guidelines and resources[edit]
The RACGP develops guidelines and resources on health issues and topics to support GPs and general practices in delivering patient care.
Events[edit]
Each year the RACGP holds an annual conference in a different location around Australia. The 2018 conference was held on the Gold Coast from 11–13 October under the theme General Practice: The centre of health in Australia and was attended by over 2000 delegates.[10]
The RACGP annual conference is an opportunity for GPs and other healthcare professionals to discuss various educational themes, attend clinical workshops and research presentations, and network with one another to support their professional development.
The various faculties and departments of the RACGP host many educational and collegial events throughout the year, including fellowship ceremonies, awards nights, workshops and seminars.
