Improving general practice standards: a lesson from Australia

[Extract] The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has fought a long battle to achieve the recognition of general practice as a defined, high quality discipline with equivalent status to that of other medical specialties. The College examination was developed in the late 1960s, but passing it conferred no particular privilege. The RACGP Training Program, then called the Family Medicine Program, was established in 1973 to prepare medical graduates for general practice at a time when the Australian government recognised the need to train more general practitioners, particularly for rural practice. However, like the College examination, training for general practice was voluntary and carried no extrinsic reward