Nearly one in three Australians is born overseas or has a parent born overseas, and many people speak a language other than English at home. Every day, hospitals care for people from diverse backgrounds.

While our health system aims to provide safe, high‑quality care for all, not all patients experience care in the same way. Differences in language, culture, migration history, and experiences of discrimination can create barriers to understanding, trust and access to care.

Multicultural safety recognises that patient safety is not only about clinical care — it is also about whether people feel respected, understood, and able to participate in decisions about their health.

The Multicultural Safety Indicator Project has aimed to co-design a world-first measure of multicultural safety to help hospitals reliably identify gaps, prevent harm, or ensure services are equitable and responsive to the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse communities.

Key take aways

• Multicultural consumers experience significant barriers to accessing healthcare
• Co-design with multicultural consumers is possible but takes time
• Implementing a measure of cultural safety is an iterative process