Good Practice

Feature story: The question of identification

Determining whether a patient identifies as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander is a vital and extremely valuable aspect of general practice, but research shows only a minority of mainstream general practices in Australia conduct routine identification processes for all patients.

Some of the barriers practices face in moving to routine identification include GPs’ belief they don’t see any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients at their practice, the desire to treat all patients the same way, regardless of their cultural or racial background, and lack of knowledge about why Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander status should be recorded.