February 2005
Content of meeting of interest to Divisions/GPs/GPDV Board: 1. The proposed Alfred Centre should commence elective surgical services in 2007. Surgery will be comprised of 60% current Alfred Hospital work and 40% Statewide work. It is intended that GPs would be able to refer directly to the Centre. 2. The SESRG confirmed their terms of reference and discussed in detail the development of a number of project teams that will work on the detailed development of aspects of the Alfred Centre. These teams are The 4 teams will each be led by members of the SESRG. They will inform each other as well as having links with other relevant groups (SESRG, ACAES, etc). The work that is of most relevant to GPs is that around access, referral, preadmission and discharge. The team that has been put together to do this work will be led by Andrew Stripp, Director of Operations, Alfred Hospital. Di Passalisk indicated that the SouthCity DGP would be approached re providing a project worker to this team. I suggested that what was really needed was a GP. A GP would be better able to provide advice on access, referral and communication issues. I also suggested that Di consider broader GP representation (i.e. not just drawn from the SouthCity DGP) to reflect the Statewide nature of the Alfred Centre. 3. Di Passalisk described the proposed model of care, with a focus on statewide referral, centralised patient scheduling, nurse led preadmission and early discharge planning. It will be important to ensure that early discharge planning has a component of GP communication, unlike other discharge planning efforts by DHS/acute health. Next SESRG meeting: 16 March 2005
Content of meeting of interest to Divisions/GPs/GPDV Board: 1. The draft Managing elective surgery patients and waiting lists: policy and guidelines for Victorian health services document was discussed. The document attempts to create consistency across health services in the way that patients are allocated to and managed on waiting lists. I have made considerable comment on the document, particularly in regard to the implications for GPs when referring patients and the role of the GP in the interim care of waiting patients. 2. A major issue for surgeons concerns the practice of consenting patients in their private rooms for placement on a public list. Surgeons are not happy with the medicolegal risk associated with this (the duty of care to the patient during the wait that arises from this one consultation). They are also doubtful of the validity of consent when it is obtained several months prior to the procedure. These are legitimate concerns, but it will be important that the solution does not further compromise patient access to the waiting list (e.g. by mandating that all patients attend OPD to get onto a waiting list). This will be an ongoing issue for ACAES. 3. The Policy and Guideline document presents an opportunity to introduce some new KPIs to drive waiting list management. I have suggested that one such KPI might be evidence of communication with GPs about the placement of a patient on a waiting list and the patient’s subsequent management plan. 4. The long awaited waiting list website looks set to be launched imminently. ACAES were given a demonstration of the website, which will sit within the Victorian Public Hospitals site. Note that it is now intended for the site to be openly accessible to the public. 5. Next meeting 18 May 2005 |