March 2001

CONTENTS

MBS Mental Health Item Update
Alan Fels for GPDV Conference
Mental Health theme for Divisions Quarterly
Medical Practice Act workshop
Sonya Tremellen accepts new role with GPDV
Corporatisation
Star Boards
GPDV Conference: Managing Change
2000th practice accredited
Coming Events - March

MBS Mental Health Item Update
Following the meeting with GP representatives on 20 February in Canberra, ADGP have distributed a summary of key points agreed to at the meeting to all divisions. These points are:

1. A new mental health specific Medicare Benefits Schedule item for general practice is an important part of the solution towards improving the provision of mental health care in Australia.
2. There is a need for ongoing skills based training to assist GPs with the detection, diagnosis and treatment of mental health problems and disorders.
3. A new mental health specific Medicare Benefits Schedule item should cover the full spectrum of care and be broadly accessible.
4. The new MBS items should result in the development of continuity of mental health care across all areas of the health system.
5. Changes to the MBS for the provision of mental health care should be well resourced and well-evaluated.
6. Broad based community consultation should be undertaken prior to the implementation of any changes to the MBS.

Consultations with consumer groups have recently been undertaken in Sydney and Melbourne. A national meeting of professionals who have been involved in the development and delivery of training programs for GPs for the management of depression and anxiety will be convened by beyondblue on 14 March. The Australian Medical Association has also prepared a position paper in support of the new MBS item and related items which is available to divisions for comment on request.

A number of divisions have forwarded GP responses to GPDV in support of the new item in an accessible form, and with appropriate support. One division has pointed to the need for a rigorous survey of GPs to assess uptake of the new item. Views and responses on this issue are still sought by GPDV from GPs via divisions prior to the finalisation of a report to ADGP in the next two weeks. ADGP will prepare a position paper to present to the Department of Health and Aged Care and to the Minister.

Alan Fels for GPDV Conference
The latest addition to the GPDV Conference at the end of March will be the Chair of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC). Prof Alan Fels will speak about the ACCC's GP Guide to the Trade Practices Act on the first day of the conference, Friday 30 March, immediately after the concurrent sessions in the afternoon.

The GP Guide has been prepared by the ACCC specifically to help GPs understand the trade practices law. It was developed with the assistance of ADGP which provided input from a group of GPs, one of whom was Chris Pearce of the GPDV board. Of particular interest to the conference will be the guide's section on corporatisation of general practice and potential issues that might arise from changing structures in general practice.

The draft guide is available on www.accc.gov.au or from offices of the ACCC. The ACCC will finalise the draft for circulation after comment, which should be in by 19 March. The ACCC will then be holding workshops on the Act to ensure that GPs are accurately informed about the implications of the Act and about ACCC's priorities

Your division has a copy of the draft guide.

Mental Health theme for Divisions Quarterly
The current Mental Health issue of Divisions Quarterly has articles on the current issues in mental health, including brief article by GPs on the difference divisions have made to their work in mental health. Of particular current interest is discussion of how the issue of GP payment for mental health consultations should be resolved.

Medical Practice Act workshop
The Medical Practitioners Board of Victoria will be convening a workshop on corporatisation on Friday 16 March 2001 to explore whether legislative change to the Medical Practice Act is necessary or desirable, and if so, what those changes should include. Divisions will be invited to send representatives, on a first come first in basis.

Sonya Tremellen accepts new role with GPDV
Sonya Tremellen, project officer for Public Health & Immunisation, has accepted the position of Primary Health Care Consultant. Sonya is looking forward to starting this challenging role on 3 April.

Corporatisation
At the GPDV Board meeting on 9 February 2001, the board adopted a position on corporatisation. It states that GPDV:

• acknowledges the importance of concerns about maintaining clinical autonomy and ensuring practice management and ownership models that will lead to high quality, ethical, accessible care for communities.
• believes that maintenance of standards in corporate and other structures is most appropriately addressed through the RACGP Standards for General Practice.
• believes that legal ownership and regulation issues should be examined, in light of increasing corporatisation. GPDV will work to facilitate Victorian divisions' input on these issues to the Medical Practitioners Board and the Department of Human Services.
• believes that while divisions have a role in assisting and providing information to their member GPs on corporatisation issues, the individual practice-level business issues are at this time primarily a matter for the AMA.
• acknowledges that there is no formal consensus among divisions about which model of practice – or which owner – is most likely to achieve improved quality health care delivery at the local level.
• is interested in providing a forum for discussion of the issues surrounding the relationship between divisions and corporations.
• has a role in obtaining clarification of Commonwealth and State government policies that may affect divisions' responses to corporatisation.

For more information, you can view GPDV's corporatisation update on our website at www.gpdv.com.au/corp.htm. Copies of this update have been sent to divisions.

Star Boards
On 17th February, twenty-six division board members and CEOs attended GPDV's Star Boards workshop presented by John Mero, a consultant and expert on boards and governance issues. Andrew Tongue, Assistant Secretary, GP Branch, DH&AC, was guest speaker and added a valuable hour on the key issues facing divisions now, given the changes in general practice and the problems of the health system. In their evaluation, participants stated that Andrew "specified the Commonwealth position clearly and laid down the gauntlet to GP divisions to make changes in health care provision happen" and "Great opportunity to hear clearly the DH&AC overview." Board members reported gaining many good ideas for running better divisions. For instance

• The need for boards to be well led with a vision for the future.
• The need for board education.
• The need for improved strategic planning.

They listed their ideas for improvements they could make to their boards and divisions, including

• Work on better membership representation, realise the potential.
• Take my vision back to the board to stimulate discussion, other division networking.

Participants rated John Mero highly, with 9.57 out of 10. Comments included

"Quality presentation. Excellent, very articulate and stimulating speaker. An excellent presentation – stimulating, topical and humorous."
The second board leadership workshop for 2001 will be on Saturday 19th May, held the day before the May Divisions Forum.

GPDV Conference: Managing Change
30 & 31 March 2001

The 2nd annual GPDV conference with the theme of Managing Change will be held on Friday 30th and Saturday 31st March 2001 and looks like being a full house.
We were delighted with the number of proposals that we received for presentation in the concurrent sessions. We received proposals from Victorian divisions, academic departments of general practice, DHS, and the RACGP. We have tried to include a balance of organisations and viewpoints.
A significant number of Victorian GPs and division staff will be presenting. Other presenters include

• Dr Joanna Flynn, President, Medical Practitioners Board of Victoria.
• Dr Chris Wake, Chair, Central Australian Division of Primary Health Care

The full final program will be available on our website the week before the conference.

There are still a few places available if you get your registration in quickly. The registration form and brochure can be found on our website at www.gpdv.com.au, or contact us on (03) 9341 5200 to obtain a copy.

2000th practice accredited
The 2000th full AGPAL accreditation was awarded to a Gold Coast solo GP, Dr Tim Taulke-Johnson. AGPAL report that they have now conducted close to 2500 visits and reaching the 2000th full accreditation was a significant milestone.

Coming Events - March