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.

2002 has been very busy for GPDV and divisions. The implementation of the Chronic Disease Management Program drew together many of the existing programs being rolled out by divisions and SBOs and the long-awaited Review has finally started and will demand our attention well into next year. The State election result shows that DHS programs will continue to be rolled out as planned with increasing involvement of GPs through divisions.

The board and staff are looking forward to a challenging New Year for GPDV and Victorian divisions, and to the GPDV Conference on 4-5 April that will again present a program of International and Australian speakers to stimulate our thinking.

With best wishes,

Nola Maxfield, Chair

At the first meeting of the new board on 13 December John McEncroe retired from the position of Chair, having served the maximum two terms and Nola Maxfield (S Gippsland), the former Deputy Chair, was elected unopposed as Chair. In the election for Deputy Chair, who must be a metropolitan member because the Chair is a rural member, John Meaney was elected unopposed.

At the Annual General Meeting of GPDV on Saturday 17 November the two metropolitan members were re-elected unopposed:

In the election for the rural and regional members there were three nominations for the whom the votes were:

David Tillett (Border) & Mark Loeffler (Mallee) were elected.

On 19 November, a ten year "Action Agenda" to develop the Australian pharmaceutical industry was launched by the Federal Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources, the Hon Ian Macfarlane.

The agenda consists of

• a formal partnership between the Federal Government and the private pharmaceutical industry;
• an industry development program to encourage further R&D and investment, and
• a marketing strategy to promote Australia�s attraction as an investment location

GPDV congratulates the five Victorian divisions who received awards at the ADGP 2002 Forum. They were:

• Northern Melbourne for Promoting Divisions,
• North West Melbourne for Consumer Engagement,
• North East Victoria for GP Engagement,
• Mallee for Innovation for their OTD Education & Support Program,
• the Diabetes Alliance Group of five divisions (Melbourne, Northern, North West Melbourne, Western Melbourne and Westgate) for Collaboration/Integration.

Watch out for the GPDV Conference Brochure.

Conference brochures will be distributed in December. If you do not receive a copy, but would like more information please visit the GPDV website at www.gpdv.com.au/Conference/Conference 2003/  or contact Eliza Sanneman (03) 9341 5207, e.sanneman@gpdv.com.au.

GPDV is pleased to welcome Linda McKenzie as our new Receptionist/Administrative Assistant. Her predecessor, Danielle Stephenson has been promoted to the position of Administrative Officer for Information Systems and the Victorian Primary Health Care Research, Evaluation and Development (PHC RED) Partnership.

GPDV will be closed for the Christmas break from noon on Friday 20 December, and will re-open on Thursday 2 January 2003.

This has been an exciting year of activity for the Partnership, which comprises the Departments of General Practice at the University of Melbourne and Monash University, and the Department of Rural Health, University of Melbourne. The Partnership offers all primary health care providers in Victoria an invitation to participate in Partnership research capacity building activities. It has designed and implemented its Education and Fellowships Programs, and has also worked collaboratively on a number of research activities with primary health care providers. More such activities are planned for 2003. Four divisions have signed an MoU with a Partnership university department and more MoUs between divisions and the university departments are anticipated! In all, twenty-eight of the thirty Victorian divisions of general practice have chosen to engage with the PHC RED Partnership in a range of activities, so far!

The Victorian Primary Health Care Research, Evaluation and Development (PHC RED) Partnership has successfully rolled out its 2002 Education Program. This comprised 6 workshops in July-October, to 52 participants from 22 Victorian divisions of general practice, plus a further 42 Victorian primary health care providers and staff from other primary health care organisations. The 2003 Education Program is currently being planned in consultation with stakeholders.

The PHC RED Fellowship recipients have now commenced this program. Recipients of the fellowships, and the university department they are working with during their fellowship are:

Mrs Beverley Guest-Smith � Dept. Rural Health, Shepparton; Dr Larry Osborne, Dr Hennie Williams and Dr Helen Malcolm �Dept. General Practice, Monash University; Dr Ian Relf, Dr Michael Daly and Dr Anne Stephenson - Dept. General Practice, University of Melbourne. More information about the Education Program and Fellowships Program and its current fellows will be available on the PHC RED webpages, which will be launched shortly.

Several divisions have been working with the Partnership to build their RED capacity by availing themselves of the advice and consultancy offered. For more information about PHC RED and what it might offer you or your primary health care organisation, please contact Danielle Stephenson at GPDV on 9341 5228 or email d.stephenson@gpdv.com.au.

The Minister for Health and Ageing, Senator Kay Patterson, presented the 2002 National Immunisation Awards on Thursday, 7 November 2002, in Brisbane.

Immunisation awards are given to provide encouragement and raise the profile of immunisation activities. They are given in recognition of the collaborative efforts of all immunisation providers to improve immunisation rates in Australia.

In 2002, awards were presented in the following categories (among others):

• Highest immunisation coverage for a division in Australia;
• Highest immunisation coverage for a division in each State/Territory;
• Recognition of innovative immunisation activities by a division;

Otway Division won both the national and state award for highest immunisation coverage with a rate of 93.2%. East Gippsland won an award for innovative immunisation activities in their Q Fever program and Western Melbourne won an award for innovative immunisation activities for their data-cleaning, achieving the highest rate increase in Victoria for the previous 12 months. Congratulations to these three divisions!

As you can all imagine, all Victorian divisions are undertaking innovative data-cleaning activities and most rural divisions undertook an amazing effort with Q Fever. For this reason, all Victorian Divisions should be proud of the Victorian tradition of innovation and hard slog!

The Minister for Health and Ageing, Senator Kay Patterson, has announced that the GPII Scheme with funding for Divisions and State Based Organisations will continue until 30 June 2004.

The Minister also announced that vaccinations administered as catch up schedules would be included in the calculations for GPII Outcomes payments to practices from 1 July 2003.

The Minister also announced that the planned increase in the eligibility threshold for receiving Outcomes payments, from 85% to 90% immunisation coverage, that was due to take effect on 1 January 2003, will be postponed for six months until 1 July 2003. This means that outcomes payments will continue to be made to practices with 85% immunisation coverage until the end of June 2003. After this, practices will need a minimum of 90% immunisation coverage to receive an outcomes payment.

Victorian divisions received funding in the first round for 5 pilot sites involving 9 divisions. The Access to Allied Health Services pilots aim to provide GPs registered with HIC for the Better Outcomes in Mental Health initiative with support from allied health professionals for people with a mental health disorder.

The successful Victorian divisions are:

• the three Gippsland divisions;
• North West Melbourne for a stepped model of patient referral;
• Greater South Eastern and Dandenong , using a voucher system for patient referral to a range of agencies and providers;
• Knox for CBT-focussed treatment;
• Bendigo and Murray Plains for a model incorporating Psychiatric Nurses in care in general practice settings.

Four other Victorian divisions - Geelong, Ballarat, Central Highlands and North East Victoria - have been notified that they will be funded in a supplementary funding round from January 2003.

Congratulations to all divisions on a marvellous outcome for mental health this year.