We’ve now published the Standards for health services in Australian immigration detention facilities (IDF Standards) (2nd edition) on our website. The IDF Standards support the delivery of safe, quality care in immigration detention facility health services.
Members of the working group that developed the IDF Standards recently spoke with newsGP about the implementation of profession-led standards of safe, quality care in immigration detention facilities and the changes to the IDF Standards since the first edition.
The new edition aligns with the Standards for general practices (5th edition) to ensure health services deliver primary care that’s comparable to services in the community. The new edition also reflects the needs of patient populations in detention by including aspects such as cultural and linguistic diversity, post-traumatic stress, and other complex physical and mental health issues.
We piloted the IDF Standards in immigration detention facility health services earlier this year to test their feasibility, acceptability, achievability and applicability.
In supporting the development of the IDF Standards, the RACGP is not condoning or supporting the use of immigration detention. We acknowledge that within the constraints of the current legislative framework, a quality and safety standard is necessary to optimise delivery of healthcare to those detained in immigration detention facilities.
We consider the IDF Standards applicable to all restrictive immigration detention facilities where a health service provider is contractually responsible to provide healthcare, and where, as a consequence of their detention, individuals aren’t able to choose to access other external primary care and/or mental health services.
You can read our position statement on the application of the IDF Standards on the RACGP website.