New General Practice Standards Put Patient Participation in Focus

How can general practices move beyond collecting patient feedback to ensuring it contributes to better care?

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has released the sixth edition of its Standards for general practices, placing greater emphasis on consumer engagement, patient experience and continuous improvement.

Published in August 2026, the updated standards recognise the importance of involving patients in decisions about the services they use and demonstrating how their feedback contributes to improvements in care.

For engagement professionals working in health, the standards reinforce an important principle: meaningful engagement is not simply about asking for feedback, but showing how that feedback informs decisions.

What do the new standards say about engagement?

The sixth edition includes a dedicated Patient Participation Standard, with criterion PP8 – Engaging consumers outlining expectations for ongoing, meaningful consumer involvement.

Under this criterion, general practices are expected to:

• Engage with consumers through both formal and informal approaches to improve care.
• Inform consumers how their feedback has been considered and used to improve services.

The guidance recognises that engagement can take many forms, from informal conversations and feedback opportunities to more structured activities involving patients in service planning and improvement.

Importantly, it also highlights the value of ongoing, two-way relationships between consumers and healthcare providers.

Practical approaches to involving patients

The RACGP guidance outlines a range of methods that practices can consider, depending on their circumstances and the communities they serve.

These include patient journey mapping, focus groups, community events and patient-reported experience measures.

It also identifies opportunities for deeper involvement, such as inviting consumers to review practice information, participate in quality improvement committees, contribute to consumer advisory councils or take part in practice governance.

These are examples of possible approaches, rather than a requirement for every practice to use every method.

The guidance encourages practices to consider how consumer feedback can inform tangible changes, such as improving appointment systems, updating communication materials or responding to concerns about service accessibility.

Closing the feedback loop

One of the most relevant aspects of the updated standards for engagement professionals is the emphasis on communicating what happens after feedback is received.

Practices are encouraged to explain what improvements have been made or are planned in response to consumer input.

Where changes are not possible, the guidance recommends explaining why.

This is an important distinction. Collecting feedback does not, on its own, demonstrate meaningful engagement. People also need to understand whether their experiences have informed decisions and what outcomes have followed.

For engagement teams, this reinforces the value of planning for feedback, evaluation and communication from the beginning of an engagement process.

What happens next?

Although the sixth edition has been released, accreditation under the National General Practice Accreditation Scheme continues to use the fifth edition while transition arrangements are developed.

General practices are being encouraged to familiarise themselves with the updated requirements and consider how they can be incorporated into existing quality improvement activities.

For health engagement professionals, the new standards offer a useful opportunity to review current approaches to consumer participation.

Are patients involved early enough to influence improvements? Are opportunities to contribute accessible and ongoing? And, importantly, can practices demonstrate what has changed because people shared their experiences?

The standards reinforce that effective consumer engagement is not a one-off activity. It is an ongoing part of delivering responsive, person-centred healthcare.

Explore the RACGP’s guidance on engaging consumers