RACGP says no to racism by supporting the ‘Racism. It stops with me’ campaign

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has strengthened its commitment to combat racism within primary healthcare through its endorsement of the Australian Human Rights Commission ‘Racism. It stops with me’ campaign.

The RACGP will play a leadership role in working with GPs to address racism experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, in addition to people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds¹. The campaign is part of the Commission’s National Anti-Racism Strategy.

Associate Professor Brad Murphy, Chair of the RACGP’s National Faculty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health, said that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients and communities experience various forms and degrees of racism in their access to, and experience with, primary healthcare services.

“Three out of four Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people regularly experience race discrimination when accessing primary healthcare, leading to some people not being properly diagnosed and treated for disease².

“Recent research has also suggested that there is a strong, possibly causal, link between experiences of racism and health outcomes for Indigenous people³.

“In the absence of proper education on racism and its effects, including failing to identify a patient’s Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander status, or assuming the answer based on physical appearance, is a form of covert racism,” A/Prof Murphy said.

The RACGP Standards for general practices (4th edition) require practices to demonstrate that they routinely identify and record Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status in their active patient health records with the aim of reducing the number of unidentified patients failing to receive clinically and culturally appropriate care.

“Some GPs believe that they don’t have any Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people amongst their patient group, but they may be surprised. It is only when a general practice starts identifying the Indigenous status of all their patients that they can be sure.

A/Prof Murphy said the College is eager to work with GPs to support change within the primary healthcare profession to ensure a healthier Australia, free of racism.

View the RACGP National Faculty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health’s submission to the Australian Human Rights Commission's National Anti-Racism Partnership and Strategy.

1. Australian Human Rights Commission, Racism. It stops with me, 2012
2. ibid
3. Paradies, Y. 2006a, A systematic Review of Empirical Research on Self-reported Racism and Health, International Journal of Epidemiology, vol 35, no 4, pp 888-901.