December 2000

CONTENTS

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year
Changes at GPDV Board
AGM Thanks Retiring Members
GPs, Divisions and Corporatisation
Divisions an Outstanding Success
Papers
Divisions Quarterly
AGPAL Reaches 2000
Accreditation Statistics

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year
On behalf of the board and staff of GPDV I wish all Victorian divisions, their members and staff, and all readers of this newsletter a very Merry Christmas.

The year 2000 has been a busy and productive year for GPDV enhancing the support functions developed in the previous year. There will be exciting challenges and developments over the next year including the second annual conference (30/31 March 2001) and the development of the GPDV strategic plan for the next triennium 2001-2004 which will build on the strengths that the SBO has developed in its first three years.

With Best wishes, John McEncroe, Chair

Changes at GPDV Board
Two new members, Sharon Monagle (Central Bayside) and David Tillett (Border), have joined the board of GPDV following the announcement of the election results at the GPDV AGM on Sunday 19 November.
Each year four members of the board – two metropolitan and two rural & regional – retire by rotation. Metropolitan members retiring this year were John Meaney (Dandenong) and Rosie Colahan (Central Bayside); rural members retiring were Julie Thompson (West Gippsland) and Chris Pearce (NE Victoria). Julie Thompson and Rosie Colahan did not stand again this year but there were still five candidates for the two metropolitan positions and three for the two rural positions.

The members elected for two year terms are:

The board met for the first time on Friday 8 December when John McEncroe (Inner East Melbourne) was elected Chair, and Nola Maxfield (South Gippsland) Deputy Chair.

AGM Thanks Retiring Members
The AGM on 19 November resolved by acclamation to thank two retiring members of the board who had decided not to stand again. Both were founder members of GPDV's board, elected in December 1997 to prepare for the formal funding and establishment of SBOs from 1 July 1998.

Julie Thompson (West Gippsland) has been Chair of GPDV since Paul Hemming stepped down in April 1999, as well as Victorian Rural Representative on the Board of ADGP, the national peak organisation of divisions, and is now Chair of ADGP, as well as ADGP rep on the GP MoU Group and the GP Financing Group. As both Victorian members of ADGP's board have observer status at GPDV board meetings, we will maintain our close connection with Julie.

Rosie Colahan (Central Bayside) has held the Public Health & Health Promotion and the Access & Equity portfolios and has been a major contributor of ideas for the continuing promotion of divisions and GPDV. Rosie feels she can no longer spare the time needed to contribute to the board but we expect that we will still be able to draw on her experience and ideas for GPDV in her areas of interest.

GPs, Divisions and Corporatisation
Emma Sartori is working on a research project for GPDV looking at the characteristics of the GPs who are most active in divisions. The purpose of the project has been to examine the implications for divisions of changes in the structure of general practice and hence in the role of the GP in the health system. The project compares the profile of those who are active in divisions with the profile of general practice as a whole. Within this it assesses whether the corporatisation of general practice is likely to have an impact on the participation of active GPs in divisions.

Currently all divisions in Victoria are compiling data about the profile of those who are active members of divisions. Once collated this information will be compared to the overall profile of general practice to examine whether and how these might differ from the profile of GPs working in corporatised models. The findings of the research will be presented at the GPDV Conference in March 2001.

Emma can be contacted at GPDV on tel. (03) 9341 5222 or by email: e.sartori@gpdv.com.au

Divisions an Outstanding Success
The Minister for Health, Dr Michael Wooldridge, described Divisions of General Practice as an outstanding success of the last decade at his meeting with GP representatives of urban divisions in Melbourne on 10 November.

In a wide ranging discussion and question and answer session following small group work by the GPs, the Minister expressed his desire to provide real support for the full-time GP who owns his/her practice and provides high quality medical care to the 5,000 to 8,000 patients seen per year. But he warned that additional funding must bring additional benefits for the community: it will be very hard for him to secure additional funds for Health if those funds are to go directly into increased rebates for GPs.

The minister also

• expressed his interest in receiving proposals for practice management and business development support to GPs delivered through divisions of general practice.
• said he is prepared to discuss extended MBS item numbers for Mental Health Care in general practice in the context of the GP Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
• challenged divisions to develop a division classification system that is as equitable as possible for divisions on the metropolitan fringe and in provincial cities.
• offered to consider issuing provider numbers for after hours care to divisions of general practice but only if the idea received strong support from the divisions.
• announced the release of a tender for a national Centre for Primary Care Research & Development that will be based in a university and will look specifically at general practice data.

Your division has the full minutes of the meeting with the minister. Other interested people can get a copy from Louise Willis, Policy Officer at GPDV l.willis@gpdv.com.au or on (03) 9341 5208

Earlybird deadline approaching

GPDV 2nd Annual Conference
30 and 31 March 2001
Hotel Sofitel, Melbourne

Managing Change:
Divisions, GPs & People's Health

You have a few more days to get in your EARLYBIRD registration ($100 discount on the full registration fee) before the deadline on 15 December. Get the forms from your division, our website: www.gpdv.com.au or call Penny Handley at GPDV on (03) 9341 5200

The conference theme is 'managing change' and the conference sessions will explore structural changes in general practice and changes in the GP role in population health. As it is a division conference the emphasis will be on how divisions can respond to these developments in the interests of their GP members.

Papers
The concurrent sessions offer opportunities to present your ideas and experience and to hear about other successful approaches to change in general practice. We strongly encourage divisions to submit proposals for presentation in these sessions.

Send the abstract of about 200 words by 31 January to Christine Macdonald at c.macdonald@gpdv.com.au. A panel will consider the proposals and notify all those presenting by 21 February.

Divisions Quarterly
Another issue of Divisions Quarterly, on the theme of GPs and population health, will be distributed next week. Mark Harris of the JAG on GPs and population health is the guest editor and the articles explore models for population health activity in divisions; support to help GPs use the new community care plans with diabetic patients; the role of the GPs in responding to health inequalities especially in relation to men's health. There is discussion about the meaning of population health and John McEncroe argues for better recognition of the contribution that GPs already make to the health of the population.

To subscribe: email to subscriptions@gpdv.com.au or download the subscription form from our website at: www.gpdv.com.au

AGPAL Reaches 2000
Congratulations to Dr Karen Price and the other GPs and staff at the Were Street Medical Centre in Brighton for being the 2000th practice to be surveyed by AGPAL.

Surveyors Ms Bev Aitken and Dr John Meaney conducted the 2000th AGPAL accreditation survey visit on 17 November, although neither the surveyors nor the practice knew before the visit that this was number 2000.

Accreditation Statistics
At the end of November, 4315 practices have registered for AGPAL Accreditation.

Of all practices in each state, the percentage registered is: