GPDV BOARD
MEETING SUMMARY
Friday
11 October 2002
Review of Divisions
DHS GP Adviser
Performance Indicators for Hospital Discharge
IMIT Survey of Victorian divisions
The minister announced the Review of the Role of Divisions of General Practice, although no details of the process have been given, there will be consultations in each state. All SBOs and ADGP will teleconference on the 15 October to discuss the review and coordinate a response. In discussion the board noted that DoHA will be putting a strong view to the panel and that divisions need to be equally firm.
The board noted that it is important that other stakeholders be involved in the process to emphasis the importance of divisions and that there is also a strong need to have grass-roots GPs comment on the importance of divisions. Bill will draft a message for divisions about the importance of making submissions about the most important aspects of their work.
Dr Peter Waxman, GP Adviser to DHS, presented to the board the DHS PCP Service Directories. He said that the directories and the PCP referral forms have not been rolled-out sooner because they have not reached a high enough standard to be useful for GPs. Peter asked that the board look at the directory and make comments to DHS and requested GPDV to inform divisions.
Peter also referred to the recently released report on GPs in CHCs, saying that DHS policy is now to develop practices in CHCs. Peter commented that PCPs do not deliver services, but are coordinating groups for local service deliveries. Their aim is to improve communication between local agencies. Asked if the PCP reports on GP engagement have been collated, Peter said that DHS is revising the criteria to assess them more effectively.
Performance Indicators for Hospital Discharge
Under the Effective Discharge Strategy DHS developed compulsory performance indicators for public hospitals. DHS has now removed the obligation on hospitals to report formally against these performance indicators and has made it a voluntary and internal process that hospitals may complete if they wish.
The board commented that the reluctance to comply varies between units in each hospital. Although this reflects the different views of senior clinicians, without the support of hospital management there will be no improvement.
The board decided to raise this matter with Shane Solomon, Acute Care Division, DHS.
IMIT Survey of Victorian divisions
The board received Chris�s IMIT report on the survey of divisions, which showed that the future role of the IT officer in divisions is changing to focus more on information management for improved health outcomes and less on IT support for practices. There is a strong need to communicate this to GPs. The divisions IT network can define what should be divisions� responsibility and what should be that of a private provider. Chris identified that there needs to be a specific plan for each division on what they need to provide in IM to improve health outcomes.
The board thanked Chris for his work at GPDV and wished him well at Intrahealth.