GPDV Board Summary
Friday 10th December 2004
1. Election of office holders
The Board elected John Meaney as Chair, Rob Grenfell as Deputy Chair and David Tillett as Treasurer.
2. Proposed funding for positions at GPDV
Hepatitis C
The project will develop an information pack for practices, Hep C education resources for divisions' CPD sessions and supports to reinforce key messages through divisions.
3. Palliative Care
The proposal from DHS is to extend to GPs the existing Program of Experience in the Palliative Approach (PEPA) that has targeted other health professionals and has been well received by them and by the host sites. One of the chief aims is to enhance the relationship between GPs, palliative care clinicians and services. For GPDV this will be a good opportunity to develop links with the DHS Cancer Co-ordination Unit and to reinforce the value of GPs, divisions and GPDV to the state health system. DHS have divided the state into regions and will have a regional focus for services.
4. Divisions Review Implementation Committee
In discussion of the draft performance indicators the board agreed to encourage divisions to respond to the RIC to point out issues of concern and to suggest alternatives or improvements that would measure the effectiveness of divisions and their programs and their engagement of GPs.
5. ADGP National Policy Group
The board re-endorsed the position that all SBOs need to be involved in the development of a national policy; to present the views of a state's divisions and take back messages from the national group for information or further action at state level. This is a good opportunity for SBOs to open-up discussions in each state with all divisions as a group.
Bill has registered GPDV's interest in the ADGP group and we await some discussions about the processes to be used.
6. Collaboratives
The board received an update on the collaboratives, and noted that the constantly changing conditions for applications made it difficult for divisions to follow the guidelines. Many divisions have been reluctant to sign the agreement with NPCC because of the predicted difficulty of meeting the conditions imposed by NPCC. Any practice that pulls-out after the orientation process, the division has to find a replacement practice, this may be very hard and the practice will miss out on the important orientation process. The board decided that it was important to clarify the practices involvement, if they have to do all three activities or can they do just one.
The board expressed its support for the Collaborative Program as it was first proposed and agreed that when NPCC has confirmed which Victorian divisions are involved we will offer to call a meeting to work out how best GPDV can support them in the roll-out of the program, but will also advocate for Victorian divisions to make the contract more acceptable. We will also work with other SBOs, to maintain links between the states, and with NPCC but will take care that we do not take on work for which NPCC has been funded.
7. A national Plan for Child Health
The board received Susan's update on the National Public Health Partnership's paper Developing a National Action Plan for Children 2005-2008.
In discussion of the program areas in which Victorian divisions specifically targeted children, the board agreed that the areas should not be treated separately, that children's health was closely related to socio-economic issues, that youth mental health and education and prevention are priorities.
8. Department of Human Services
Lorna Payne, Acting Director, Primary & Community Health, DHS, attended and updated on issues raised by the board at the November meeting.
GPs in CHCs Program: the board had raised the issue of vocational registration as a requirement for CHC GPs; Lorna reported that this was currently not a requirement, but that the funding guidelines will be reviewed before the next round of funding and that this requirement would be considered as part of that review.
In response to the board's concerns that some CHCs had claimed in their submissions that they had the local division's support although they had not discussed the matter with the division, Lorna said that DHS will in future require specific written evidence of support from divisions.
Ambulatory Care: the consultation process for ambulatory care will start in the new year and it will include consultation with GPDV. A discussion paper will be drafted and a request for comment will be issued in February/March.
Super Clinics
Lorna said that the locations are fixed but that the range of services is still under discussion; she will provide a detailed update in 2005.
9. HARP
John McEncroe reported that there is to be a new smaller reference group, of which he is a member, to inform the continuing HARP projects. The task for the group will be to embed what was been learnt from HARP into mainstream acute and hospital systems. John will be tabling Lenora's paper at the meeting on 13 December, outlining what worked well and what did not from a division's perspective.
10. DHS Pandemic Flu Committee
The board received a report from Wendy who has emphasised the need to involve GPs in the planning for pandemic flu, as has been done in WA. Members commented that GPs must also be involved in planning for Displan and other emergencies.
11. Mental Health Services
The board received John Meaney's report on the very successful GPDV & RACGP Forum on mental health on 26 November, in which members of the GPDV M