General practice quick updates for week beginning 31 August 2026
Updates for the week beginning Monday 31 August 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].
Important Updates
NEW Standards for general practices (6th edition) released
RACGP has developed the Standards for general practices (6th edition) (the Standards) to support high-quality, safe general practice care across Australia. The Standards are grounded in the best available evidence on how practices can deliver safe, effective, and patient-centred healthcare. The development of this edition was guided by the quintuple aim of healthcare – improving patient experience, population health outcomes, cost-efficiency, provider wellbeing, and health equity – and all five elements are reflected throughout the Standards.
Accreditation against standards seeks to:
improve patient safety
promote patient-centredness, including support for patients and inclusion in decision-making
improve the quality of healthcare
foster continuous quality improvement
foster practice safety culture
The Standards support general practices to identify, develop and implement sound and contemporary systems and processes that also provide a framework for continuous quality improvement.
You can find out more about the standards and what the updates mean for your practice at RACGP - Standards 6th edition hub or by registering for an upcoming webinar:
AGPAL introduction to the RACGP Standards 6th edition
Session 1
Thursday 3 September | 11.00 am – 11.30 am AEST
Session 2
Thursday 3 September | 1.00 pm – 1.30 pm AEST
General practice quality improvement: small changes, better outcomes
Quality improvement (QI) helps general practices review what is working well, identify opportunities for improvement and make practical changes that support safer, better coordinated patient care.
Over the next three weeks, we’ll share information and resources to help your practice build confidence with QI, including how to use your data, how to include your team and how to improve patient health outcomes.
Get started:
Access more information about QI on the website: What is Quality Improvement? | Brisbane South PHN
Access the QI introduction toolkit.
Access self-paced QI activities: Quality improvement | Brisbane South PHN
Contact the Quality Improvement team on Ph. 38647540 or email [email protected].
Assignment of Benefit (AoB) and MyMedicare
The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing wishes to advise general practices of the following update to assignment of Medicare benefit requirements:
MyMedicare registration makes patients eligible for enduring Assignment of Benefit (AoB) agreements. Patients can only have one MyMedicare registration. Changing registration impacts MyMedicare-linked benefits.
What practices need to know
An enduring AoB allows eligible patients to provide ongoing consent for bulk-billed GP services, removing the need to complete a new AoB for each visit.
From 1 July 2026, enduring AoB arrangements are available for eligible patient groups, including patients registered with MyMedicare.
To use an enduring AoB, patients must be registered with your practice in MyMedicare.
Patients can only have one MyMedicare registration at a time. Registering a patient with your practice will replace any existing MyMedicare registration they may hold with another practice. This is the same for the new enduring AoB agreements.
Practices can decide what services are offered in an enduring agreement. These services must be bulk billed to patients who have an agreement.
Services provided as part of a MyMedicare enduring agreement require practice to notify the assignor afterwards.
Practices should ensure patients understand when they are consenting to a MyMedicare registration that a change in registration could affect access to MyMedicare-linked benefits, including eligibility for some telehealth services and the General Practice in Aged Care Incentive (GPACI).
What practices should do now
Continue to follow current Assignment of Benefit requirements for all bulk billed and GPACI-related services.
Before using an enduring AoB arrangement in general practice, confirm the patient is registered with that practice in MyMedicare, unless another eligible pathway applies, such as residential aged care, Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation or Aboriginal Medical Service arrangements.
Continue to provide clear information to patients about what they are consenting to, including whether they are registering or changing their MyMedicare practice.
Read more from the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing on the update to Assignment of Medicare benefit requirements and MyMedicare for practices and providers.
Free Training Health Checkup consultations with UNE Partnerships
UNE Partnerships, the registered education and training company of the University of New England, is offering general practices a free 15-minute consultation to review their workforce training needs.
The session covers your current workforce profile, any skill gaps, government-subsidised funding you may be eligible for, and training or traineeship pathways that could support recruitment, retention and succession planning.
Book a Training Health Checkup call with UNE Partnerships