Australia RACGP Standards for After-hours and Medical Deputising Services (5th edition) AHS1.1: Arrangements with practices: a medical deputising service holds formal agreements to provide after-hours care on behalf of patients' nominated practices, seeks and uses feedback from those practices, records each patient's regular GP or practice, and reports the care provided back to the regular practice in a timely way

What does AHS1.1 require?

A deputising service exists to extend the regular practice, so the relationship is formal. The service holds written agreements with each general practice on whose behalf it provides after-hours and deputising care, setting out scope, hours, communication and reporting. It asks those practices for feedback on its service and feeds it into quality improvement. At every contact it asks for and records which GP and practice the patient usually attends, and it sends a report of the care provided back to that practice promptly, normally by the start of the next business day and sooner for urgent matters, by a secure agreed channel. An after-hours clinic that is not a deputising service still records the regular practice and reports back.