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July 2001 | |
CONTENTS
Formal MoU with RWAV
A shot in the arm for collaboration in immunisation
GPDV's role in GP Education
Better Medication Management System (BMMS)
Privacy
Role for GPs in DHS Ten-Point Plan
Psychiatric Aspects/Shared Care Conference
SBO/ADGP workshop
Formal
MoU with RWAV
The Memorandum of
Understanding between GPDV, as peak organisation for Victorian
divisions, and RWAV, the Rural Workforce Agency Victoria, was
formally signed by the two Chairs, Dr John McEncroe and Dr Sam
Lees, at a launch of the MoU on 13 June 2001. The MoU identifies
three specific areas for joint work in the first year:
An immediate step towards a closer relationship is our agreement to share an additional half-floor in the building at458 Swanston Street where we both have our offices. Copies of the MoU have been sent to all Victorian Divisions and can be viewed on GPDV's web page. Additional copies are available by e-mail on request.
A shot in the arm for collaboration
in immunisation
On the 22 June 2001, GPDV, DHS
and the Metropolitan Association of Victoria (MAV) jointly hosted
a successful immunisation forum which for the first time saw a
gathering of representatives from Victorian divisions and local
councils, workshopping the art of collaboration and networking.
168 people from 28 divisions, 70% of Victorian local councils and
other representative groups attended the forum.
Professor John Catford, Director of Public Health, DHS, Jim Smith (MAV), Dr Rosemary Lester (DHS) and Peter Eizenberg (NE Valley and GPII Advisory Group) put into context the roles of local government, GPs and DHS. A clear message of the importance of all groups working together to improve immunisation service delivery in Victoria was strongly delivered.
Concurrent sessions included Kathi Williams from the Australian Childhood Immunisation Register (ACIR) answering questions on data correction, upload issues and the future of vaccines, and Dr Stephen Basser lead a discussion on risk communication strategies for addressing parents concerns.
The afternoon workshops involved participants gathering together by their DHS region to look at the process of collaboration, particularly in the context of forming joint steering committees for the Regional Data Quality Program. Overall the forum was a success and a stunning headstart to collaborative efforts in Victoria.
GPDV's role in GP Education
We are delighted to welcome Bob Burgell to our team for six
months as a consultant on GP Education. His project will assist
the board in making decisions about the future role of GPDV as a
resource for divisions in GP education and training.
Bob has wide experience as a consultant in the education and training field, where he has written a number of reports on education, training and competency standards. He is familiar with the Victorian health system, having spent several years at the DHS, where he managed educational liaison functions with industry and Higher Education/TAFE educators and represented DHS on both the Health Industry Training Board and the Social and Community Services Industry Training Board.
Bob will work closely with Victorian divisions and other organisations involved in GP education and training to analyse divisions' current education activities, identify divisions' needs, assess the immediate issues related to the current regionalisation of the GP education & training, analyse divisions' strategic thinking about their relationships with developing consortia and clarify appropriate roles for GPDV to enhance the work of divisions.
Bob will be at GPDV on Tuesdays and Wednesdays during July and full-time from the second week in August. He can be contacted by email on b.burgell@gpdv.com.au
Better Medication Management System
(BMMS)
The Commonwealth Health Department has released an exposure draft
of the Better Medication Management System (BMMS) Bill,
and invited comments from stakeholders.
The BMMS is an opt-in system, for practitioners, consumers and suppliers, for a central database of consumer medication records. It is the first part of the Commonwealth's HealthConnect scheme of national electronic health records.
The BMMS aims to improve provider and consumer access to information about medicines, and to address the problem of
"poor access by prescribers, dispensers and consumers to accurate information on a consumer's medicines [which] can result in adverse outcomes, including unnecessary hospitalisation."
(BMMS taskforce web site)
GPDV's Policy Issues Paper 15 provides a summary of the proposed system and discusses some of the issues relevant to divisions of general practice. The paper can be found on the GPDV website at www.gpdv.com.au/policy.htm.
GPDV has provided comments to the BMMS Implementation Taskforce.
Privacy
The new Commonwealth and State privacy legislation will affect
divisions of general practice, as well as general practices
themselves. There is some debate about whether or not the
"light touch" legislation provides adequate privacy
protection for citizens. There are 3 relevant pieces of
legislation:
The National Privacy Commissioner has produced draft guidelines on the National Privacy Principles, on which the Commonwealth Act is based, which provide more detail for how the principles will be interpreted. The Commissioner has also produced draft Health Privacy Guidelines, to cover health information specifically.
At the national level, ADGP and the RACGP have had discussions about how to support GPs and divisions in becoming compliant with the new legislation. GPDV will be working with the other State based organisations of divisions and ADGP to provide useful information for divisions over the next couple of months.
(The Federal Privacy Commissioner's website is www.privacy.gov.au; the State Health Department's site is at www.dhs.vic.gov.au/privacy/ )
Role for GPs in DHS Ten-Point Plan
The Minister for Health, John Thwaites, recently launched the
ten-point plan to improve patient management processes in
metropolitan hospitals. This plan arises from the work of the
Patient Management Task Force. The Task Force was established in
November 2000 to identify specific areas for improvement in
hospital patient management processes to reduce the pressure on
the metropolitan hospital system.
The ten points are:
Within these broad points there are a number of specific recommendations of relevance to divisions and GPs. GPDV is in discussion with DHS about the implementation of these, which include
"Metropolitan Health Services should build links with GPs to develop their role in discharge planning from the emergency department".
"Hospitals need to build relationships with primary care providers to ensure patient discharge notes and ongoing patient health information are available to all carers"
"Metropolitan Health Services should work with local general practices and residential aged care services to allow GPs and residential aged care nurses a greater role in managing a number of simpler health conditions arising in residents"
" Hospitals should extend their care co-ordination services to accepting GP referrals" so GPs can provide short-term interventions that will present emergency department presentations.
To put such policy objectives into practice it is recommended that " Hospital boards must develop strategic plans that set out how the organisations will attain benchmark performance in patient management practice."
For further information contact Lenora Lippmann at GPDV on l.lippmann@gpdv.com.au. To obtain a copy of the plan e-mail patient.management@dhs.vic.gov.au or visit the DHS website www.dhs.vic.gov.au.
Psychiatric Aspects/Shared Care
Conference
The second Psychiatric Aspects/Shared Care Conference, on 16-17
June, was a great success. Jointly auspiced by GPDV, RACGP and
RANZCP, the Conference attracted 45 GPs and others to a varied
program of CME and special interest forums. CME sessions included
updates on psychopharmacology for the treatment of mood and
psychotic disorders; the role of DSM-4 in clinical practice; and
an examination of the issues concerning dual diagnosis.
Two plenary sessions looked at the bigger picture of mental health education and training in general practice. The EPC session offered Commonwealth, State, and local perspectives on the new EPC items. Discussion indicated that there was considerable interest from GPs in using the EPC items for mental health conditions where care planning or case conferencing is warranted.
The second plenary session discussed training for GPs in mental health in the context of the recent Commonwealth Budget initiatives and the regionalisation of the training program. The forum emphasised that there is substantial support for developing effective responses to mental health issues in primary care with good linkages to specialised mental health services, and that it is important to bring local GPs into discussion of how that might be facilitated in the near future. Discussion highlighted the need for further dissemination and consultation about the new Budget initiatives. Overall, the conference confirmed a high degree of commitment and interest from GPs in the area of mental health practice in primary care.
SBO/ADGP
workshop
All the SBOs and ADGP will meet in Melbourne on 26-27 July for
the next in their regular series of workshops on national issues
in the Divisions Program. On this occasion we hope to be able to
make a start on clarifying how SBOs and divisions will be able to
participate in planning the implementation of DH&AC's policy
initiatives announced in the budget. The mental health, diabetes,
asthma and cervical screening initiatives will depend upon
divisions for their implementation, but the processes DH&AC
will use to consult with divisions, and other stakeholders, such
as Diabetes Australia, etc, are not yet clear. We will report on
the workshop in the August newsletter as well as directly to
divisions.