National virtual care standards on the way

With the support of the Australian Government and Australia’s Minister for Health and Ageing, and Minister for Disability and the National Disability Insurance Scheme, Mark Butler, the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (the Commission) has announced that it has been tasked with developing national standards for virtual care. Defined by the Commission as any interaction between a patient and clinician (or clinicians) that occurs remotely with the use of information technologies, virtual care has become an essential part of how Australians access health services — with more than 11 million Australians having a telehealth consultation in 2025. “Virtual care is an established and growing part of our health system, and it is important that the same expectations of safety and quality apply whether care is delivered in-person or virtually,” the Commission CEO Conjoint Professor Anne Duggan said, noting that the standards will bring the same rigour to virtual care that Australians already expect from in-person health services. “We will work closely with our partners, including the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing and the Australian Digital Health Agency, alongside clinicians, consumers and industry, to ensure the standards reflect best practice and support National Digital Health Infrastructure as a way to uplift and drive consistency in application across the health system,” Duggan said. The Commission expects to publish the standards by the end of 2027, with the standards building upon the recently released National Model for Clinical Governance. Image credit: iStock.com/Jacob Wackerhausen