Rural Proofing was a concept developed in England in 2000 for government departments when developing new legislation and policy. Health and care policy development should be reviewed through a ‘rural lens’ to ensure that rural people and communities are not adversely affected.
Rural Proofing has been taken forward as a concept that can also be used by commissioners and providers of health services to ensure that their rural populations, communities and rural health professionals are not disadvantaged as new policies for service delivery are planned.
In 2012 EURIPA was involved in rural proofing the MaPSAF Patient Safety Framework to ensure that the MaPSaF tool was relevant to rural family practice.