General practice quick updates for week beginning 19 October 2026
Updates for the week beginning Monday 19 October 2026.
Find this week’s quick updates and alerts for local general practices, covering the latest sector developments, education and training events, key health system updates, funding opportunities and clinical resources relevant to our region. Updates are grouped by focus area for easy reference.
For more information or tailored practice support, contact our Primary Care team at [email protected].
MyMedicare – How to ask for review of a decision
If a practice or provider is not satisfied with an outcome under MyMedicare (including GPACI or BBPIP), there are a few options, including the final option of requesting a formal Review of Decision (RoD).
What to do first:
In many cases, questions can be answered quickly by contacting Services Australia on 132 011 (option 2).
Where additional support is helpful, enquiries can be escalated through Services Australia for further assistance.
A request for review is a formal process and is usually the final recourse.
When to request a Review of Decision
A RoD is a formal process and is generally the next step once the initial enquiry has been escalated and reviewed and the provider or practice remains dissatisfied with the outcome.
To request a RoD, a completed form and supporting documentation must be provided to Services Australia.
What practices need to know
Taking early steps to seek clarification can often resolve questions quickly and may remove the need for a formal review.
Maintaining clear documentation and records helps support any review request if one is required.
RoD are separate process from initial enquiries and are managed through a formal review pathway.
Further information is available on the Services Australia and Department of Health, Disability and Ageing websites. Please refer to the Program Guidelines and the Review of Decision Form (IP034).
Multicultural Health QI Projects Deliver Meaningful Results
Earlier this year, Jacaranda Medical Centre and Times GP successfully completed their Quality Improvement (QI) projects focusing on multicultural health, a new coaching topic for Brisbane South PHN. Each practice identified unique gaps within their own setting and developed tailored approaches to improve healthcare access for their local communities. This included developing their own posters in translated language explaining what an Individual Health Identifier (IHI) is for and its benefits and strengthening the accuracy and completeness of patient ethnicity and demographic data recording.
Their experiences demonstrated that simple workflow changes can lead to significant improvements in data quality without placing a substantial burden on staff or patients. Reflecting on the project, Dr Bhatti from Jacaranda Medical Centre shared: “The support provided by the Quality Improvement Coordinator was invaluable. The guidance, practical advice, and regular follow-up helped keep the project on track and made the process straightforward for our team. This expertise enabled us to implement effective changes, improve the accuracy of our records, and achieve meaningful quality improvement outcomes.”
Want to share your QI activity results like Jacaranda and Times GP? Submit a QI case study form here and our General Practice Quality improvement team will be in touch.
Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Specific Populations Resource
The General Practice Mental Health Standards Collaboration (GPMHSC) has developed a new suite of resources to assist GPs in providing inclusive, trauma-informed and culturally safe care to patients from diverse backgrounds. One such resource addresses Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) patients.
The resource offers advice on providing trauma-informed and culturally safe care to CALD patients, including practical tips to build trust, ask sensitive questions respectfully, and recognise when to proceed with caution.
The resource also features tailored information around the unique challenges CALD patients face, such as cultural and familial circumstances, migration history, systemic barriers, interpreter services, specific administrative processes and more.
You can read more about the resource here or find the full suite of Specific Populations resources here.
SmartForms – the Smart referral pathway for Medicare Mental Health Centres
Healthlink's SmartForm has been specifically tailored for GP referrals, using pre-populated fields to reduce data entry, enabling completion during a consultation via the clinical software and ensuring the GP receives the outcome of each patient referral.
Because the SmartForm is a secure digital referral system it is the preferred way to refer to Medicare Mental Health Centres. The SmartForm also incorporates the Initial Assessment and Referral Decision Support Tool (IAR-DST).
Referral data is securely and efficiently sent to the Medicare Mental Health Centre intake system, meaning the referral reaches intake clinicians faster and more reliably than older methods and enables the intake team to process referrals more quickly.
Additionally, the system features automatic acknowledgements of receipt and referral tracking, allowing GPs to see the status of the referral at any time. This reduces the need for follow-up calls and makes it easier to track referral progress.