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April 2002 | |
CONTENTS
Corporatisation Update
Victorian Government's Proposed Regulation of Corporate Medical Companies
Alternative Models to Corporatisation Project
Announcements:Next Victorian Divisions Conference
National After Hours Conference
GPDV Education Project
After Hours Primary Medical Care Program
Legislative Amendments in Vic
GP positions at Southern Health
General Practitioner Register: Validation Completed
Corporate Code of Conduct A Code of Conduct for companies that provide management and administrative services in the medical field was launched by the (then) Minister for Health and Aged Care, Dr Michael Wooldridge, on 1 November 2001. The Code was developed to facilitate self-regulation by medical corporate service entities, with the aim to ensure the maintenance of relevant ethical standards and professional excellence in the delivery of primary health care services. The initial signatories are Endeavour Healthcare Ltd, The Gribble Group Ltd, and Mayne Health. Arrangements for the administration of the Code were discussed at a meeting of signatories on 6 February 2002. These arrangements include the selection and appointment of an independent Chair and related issues such as complaint resolution processes. The meeting also agreed that signatory companies would approach other medical corporate bodies, inviting them to become signatories to the Code. A copy of the Code of Conduct can be found on the AMA website at http://domino.ama.com.au/AMAWeb/IRRemun.nsf/Corporatisation under "Corporate Code of Conduct".
Victorian Government's Proposed Regulation of Corporate Medical Companies
As advertised in this newsletter, the Victorian Government's Health Practitioner Acts (Further Amendments) Bill is currently before Parliament. The Bill proposes that corporate agencies and companies will be held liable for inciting unprofessional conduct, with fines of up to $40,000 for a first offence and $80,000 for repeat offences. Individuals would face a maximum $20,000 for a first offence and up to $40,000 for repeat offences.
Alternative Models to Corporatisation Project
In December 2000, the (then) Department of Health and Aged Care approved funding of $1,168,380 to be allocated to divisions of general practice and/or SBOs to conduct feasibility studies into alternative models to corporatisation. The aim of the projects was to provide the opportunity for divisions of general practice to explore the feasibility of developing their own corporate models that incorporate the perceived benefits of working with large medical corporates whilst maintaining GP clinical independence.
Seven applications received funding, including two in Victoria: a consortium of five divisions (Western Melbourne, Northern Melbourne, Melbourne, North West Melbourne and Border), and the Whitehorse division.
All of the projects are scheduled for completion in June 2002. A tender process is currently under way toward the appointment of an organisation to evaluate the findings of the projects. The successful company will be required to analyse and extract those components of the seven projects that are considered viable and sustainable, and to develop a National Division Based Service Support Model (or models) for further consideration by all stakeholders.
Next Victorian Divisions Conference
Friday 20 and Saturday 21 September 2002
Carlton Crest Hotel, Queens Road, Melbourne
GPDV is pleased to announce that planning is underway for our third annual conference. The focus of the third annual conference is intended to be on Victoria and be based on quality and systems in practice.
Brochures and registration forms are expected to be available to divisions and other stakeholders by June.
National After Hours Conference
Sydney - 22 & 23 March
The conference kicked off with an overview by Andrew Stuart, First Assistant Secretary, Health Services Division, of the Commonwealth's commitment to after hours which includes $43.4M over 4 years. He discussed the program achievements so far, including the increase in MBS after hours rebates, standards and accreditation for medical deputising services, the Blue Moon Consumer Survey (Phase 2 soon to be released), the after hours trials (evaluation soon to be released) and the grant funding. He also highlighted the issues of information transfer, methods of ongoing funding, essential capacity and access.
David Carson, who has been instrumental in the progression of NHS out of hours services guided us through the NHS Direct (telephone information and triage) Service. Although this is a service developed for a different health service environment there is no doubt that there was a lot of interest in the future role of telephone triage and health information call centres in Australia. At the moment uptake of telephone information and triage has been at a regional or state level; centres exist in Central Grampians, WA and ACT with NSW in the process of initiating such a service.
For more information on primary care out of hours in the UK and NHS Direct see http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/ and http://www.doh.gov.uk/pricare/oohreport.htm.
Other presentations included:
For further information on any of the presentations please contact Nicole Petterson n.petterson@gpdv.com.au
GPDV Education Project
GPDV Education Project The full report of the GPDV Education Project is now available on our website. Go to www.gpdv.com.au/Education.htm.
After Hours Primary Medical Care Program
March 6 saw the first meeting of the After Hours Reference Group, which is chaired by Dr Rob Grenfell (WestVic) of GPDV's board, and includes four GPs nominated by divisions - Dr Vlad Vizec (Western Melb), Dr John Addis (Inner Eastern Melb), Dr Jan Sheringham (Bendigo) and Dr Ken Baddeley (Central Highlands).
Other members are from DoHA, DHS, the two deputising services in Melbourne (MMLS and ALMS), Metropolitan Ambulance Service, Royal District Nursing Service, Health Issues Centre (consumers), VACCHO, Pharmacy Guild (Vic Branch), and Dr Andrew Dent, Director of the Emergency Dept at St Vincent's Hospital.
At the first meeting the Group's Terms of Reference were finalised and the Draft Standards for After Hours Primary Medical Care Services were further developed. The group took the view that standards are the responsibility of all stakeholders; ie they are what the system must provide and are not solely the responsibility of GPs. In many cases their implementation will require specific funding or resources from government. For example, the funding of training and CME is essential if these are to become criteria for working in after-hours services.
The GPDV Board who have requested feedback about the standards from divisions and GPs on potential problems or omissions and comment on which criteria should be considered essential and which desirable.
Your division has a copy both of the Terms of Reference of the group and of the Draft Standards. If you are interested in after-hours services, please ask your division for a copy and take this opportunity to comment.
Other interested stakeholders can get a copy from Nicole Petterson at GPDV on 9341 5224. Please forward all comments to n.petterson@gpdv.com.au. Information about the After Hours program will shortly be added to our website www.gpdv.com.au.
The Victorian Government's Health Practitioner Acts (Further Amendments) Bill is currently before Parliament. The Bill will amend five health practitioner registration acts as well as the Health Records Act 2001. The most significant changes are to the Medical Practice Act 1994 and the Nurses Act 1993.
Changes to the Medical Practice Act aim to:
The amendments to the Nurses Act aim to:
A three page explanation of the Bill by Minister Thwaites can be found on page 423-6 of Hansard (21 March). Go to www.parliament.vic.gov.au/downloadhansard/assembly.htm and click on the Autumn 2002 session for Thursday March 21.
GP positions at Southern Health
GP positions at Southern Health Sharon Monagle (Central Bayside) and Denis Bourke (Monash) have been appointed to two new part-time positions as GP Consultants at Southern Health, to help bring a GP perspective to the hospitals. They will be based at Monash Medical Centre and Dandenong Hospital.
The aims of the GP Consultant positions are to:
This is good news from a hospital that has not always enjoyed smooth relationships with the surrounding divisions. GPDV looks forward to working with Sharon and Denis on some of the big issues around the GP-hospital interface.
General Practitioner Register: Validation Completed
The General Practitioner Register (GPR) is a database of GP names and contact details maintained by GPDV. Its purpose is to facilitate the transfer of information from hospitals to GPs when their patients are admitted or discharged. The original data was supplied by divisions and is updated by them.
To keep GP records as accurate as possible, GPDV validates the details for each GP at least once per year. Validation for this year has just been completed, and GPDV is now confident this is the most up-to-date and complete record of GP contact details in Victoria.
At 11 April, the GPR contained 4436 GP records. Of these, 4157 have been validated since January 2002. GPDV staff faxed each of the GPs with the information currently held about them in the GPR and requested that they confirm, amend or add to it where required. All the records that were not included in the validation process had been checked or updated since October 2001, so the "oldest" record is only 6 months old.
Changes were made to 78% of GP records, indicating the value of the validation process. 26% of the changes involved updates to personal details such as names, mobile numbers and division membership. 47% indicated a preferred method of contact, and 59% amended details of their practice.
59 GPs were added to the GPR during the validation process. GPDV notified divisions of 25 GPs who were not division members but indicated they would like to join.
Only 3 GPs have told GPDV that they do not wish to be included in the register, indicating a high level of GP acceptance.
Currently in the GPR records:
As well as the annual validation GPDV also makes changes to the GPR whenever they are notified by a division or a hospital. In each case we only change the data after checking it with the GP. GPs can add to the value of the GPR by informing their division immediately about changes to their contact details so that their division can notify GPDV and enable us to keep the GPR up to date.
For more information, see the GPDV website (www.gpdv.com.au; click on GP Register in the left margin).