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November 2000 | |
CONTENTS
Minister's Meeting with Urban Divisions
Nominations for the GPDV board election
Vic Divs Forum - 19 Nov Theme: Mental Health
Funding for Rural Divisions
AGPAL
Three new Active Script Divisions
VicDivs Conference Update
Evaluation of SBOs
GP Representation
Farewell to Jenk Akyalcin, Sandra Walsh & Adele Hamlyn
Annual Health Assessments
Trial - HIC information for divisions
Minister's Meeting with Urban
Divisions
The urban divisions meeting with
Minister Wooldridge will take place on Friday 10th November in
Melbourne. The five topics to be discussed are:
A teleconference of urban
divisions was held October 31st to discuss priorities to bring to
the Minister's attention. In particular:
Urban workforce problems were real and needed to be dealt with in
conjunction with rural ones. Urban divisions could help to reduce
some workforce problems by following the rural MAHS model, where
they could employ allied health workers and practice nurses to
free up GP time.
Corporatisation was attractive to GPs partly because corporations
could achieve economies of scale in practice management, and that
there were several potential ways that divisions could help their
members achieve similar economies of scale.
Hospital/GP Integration is driven by outcomes performance
measures, and that the data relating to these needs to be
available to divisions as well as hospitals to provide
appropriate incentives. It was thought that the Minister might be
asked to negotiate more appropriate outcomes performance measures
and data access into the next Health funding contract with the
States.
The full minutes of the teleconference, which include a much more
detailed summary of the discussion about the Minister's issues,
are available from your division.
Nominations for the GPDV board
election At the
close of nominations for election to the board of GPDV the
nominated candidates were
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| Rural &Regional | |
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There will be a postal ballot of
divisions, closing on 17 November for the election of two members
in each category.
The result will be announced at the Annual General
Meeting of GPDV, to be held at the Victorian Divisions Forum on
Sunday 19 November.
Vic Divs Forum - 19 Nov Theme:
Mental Health
The agenda includes the following speakers, and opportunity for
discussion:
Funding for Rural Divisions
More Allied Health Services (MAHS)and Workforce Support
for Rural General Practitioners (WSRGP)
The Victorian Office of DH&AC has notified 14 Victorian
divisions that they are eligible to receive funding under both
the More Allied Health Services (MAHS) program and the Workforce
Support for Rural General Practitioners (WSRGP) program. Eligible
divisions are those with 5% or more of its population living
within rural areas that have a RRMA classification of 4-7. Both
programs were announced as part of the Regional Health
Strategy in the 2000 Federal Budget.
The MAHS program will allocate around $49 million over four years
to eligible Divisions of General Practice to provide additional
allied health services. The WSRGP program will allocate
approximately $10 million over four years to support the rural
general practice workforce. Funding for both programs is ongoing
and is being incorporated into the existing arrangements for the
Divisions of General Practice Program. It will be known as the
fifth quinquant.
DH&AC State Office is organising regional meetings including
PCPs and DHS Regional Offices, to provide background information,
details about program guidelines and administrative requirements,
and opportunity to discuss local planning and service delivery
issues. The meetings will be held over the coming weeks. Contact
your division for more information.
AGPAL
As at 13 October over 71.5% of all general practices had
registered for AGPAL Accreditation.
SA 97.1% TAS 90.7% QLD 86.3% VIC 84.7% WA 67.7% NT 64.2% NSW 55.6% ACT 51.4%
Three new Active Script Divisions
The Active Script Program (ASP) has successfully moved into its
second year of implementation. Bendigo, Goulburn Valley and
Mornington Peninsula divisions have been selected this year to
join the existing six divisions in Phase II in October. A
selection process was required because the demand from divisions
to join the Program exceeded its funding capacity this year. Dr
Nancy Huang and the Active Script Program Team are currently
working with DHS to secure funding for the next 3-5 years so that
the Program will be expanded to all interested Divisions from
June 2001.
VicDivs Conference Update
The second Victorian Divisions conference with the theme of Managing
Change, will be presented by GPDV on March
30 & 31 2001. Brochures and registration forms were
sent to divisions at the end of October. If you would
like a copy of the brochure and registration form please obtain
them from your division or from the GPDV website www.gpdv.com.au,
or phone (03) 9341 5200.
Victorian Health Minister, John Thwaites, has granted $20,000
towards the conference costs and will open the proceedings. The
first day of the conference will discuss structural changes that
are transforming general practice. The second day will explore
the GP's role in population health and how divisions can support
GPs in this role.
Reminder: Earlybird registration offers a $110 discount for
single registrations, and if registering more than one person the
Earlybird offers even further reduced rates. The deadline for
Earlybird is 15 December.
Evaluation
of SBOs
DH&AC has let a contract for the evaluation of all SBOs to a
consortium of David Lowe, Ruth Cotton and Jacq Hackett.
The evaluation will include a survey of all divisions in early
November, followed by interviews with a sample of about 20
divisions from all states and territories and including urban,
rural and remote divisions. The team will visit each state and
territory for interviews with the SBOs and stakeholders,
including Rural Workforce Agencies, State Health Depts, State
Offices of DH&AC and state-based peak organisations. The
team's visit to Victoria is expected to be in mid to late
November.
The consultants will also hold national consultations with ADGP,
RDAA, AMA, RACGP, NACCHO, GPPAC members and the Canberra Offices
of DH&AC, including GP Branch, immunisation, IM/IT, mental
health, EPC, etc. They will talk to the National Information
Service (NIS) and with consumer groups.
The consultants will liaise throughout the evaluation with the
consultants who are evaluating the Rural Workforce Agencies.
GP
Representation
National Immunisation Committee
Congratulations to Victorian divisions' nominee, Dr Peter
Eizenberg (NE Valley), who is the newly appointed ADGP
representative on the National Immunisation Committee (NIC). The
NIC provides leadership and takes responsibility for the National
Immunisation Program. This is a new representative position for
general practice on the NIC, joining the existing RACGP
representative, Dr John Aloizos and the National GP Immunisation
Coordinator at ADGP, Diana Terry. If you wish to raise any
issues, please feel free to contact Peter directly on peter.eizenberg@nimc.com.au. or via Sonya Tremellen at GPDV on s.tremellen@gpdv.com.au.
Victorian Suicide Prevention Working Group
Congratulations also to Dr Larry Osborne (IE
Melb), the new Victorian divisions representative on the
DH&AC State Office's Suicide Prevention Working Group. The
State Office expect this committee to work for the next six
months or so, advising on policy and implementation regarding the
National Suicide Prevention Strategy in Victoria.
Farewell to Jenk Akyalcin, Sandra
Walsh & Adele Hamlyn
The recent departure of three of our staff has been a new
experience for GPDV, as they are more than have left in the whole
of our previous existence.
Sandra Walsh, Primary Mental Health Care Development Officer,
left GPDV, and Victoria, in mid October, one month before the
birth of her first child. She and her partner will be living in
South Australia. We are all eagerly awaiting news and wish her
well.
Two other members of our staff have developed such expertise in
their specialist fields that they have been headhunted by other
organisations needing their skills and their knowledge of
divisions and general practice.
Adele Hamlyn, Primary Care Consultant, has accepted a role as CEO
of one of the Primary Care Partnerships operating in central
Victoria. Her new role allows her to continue her interest in
this important field and to maintain links with GPDV, and, on a
personal level, means a large reduction in travel time as the
position is much closer to her home in Woodend.
Jenk Akyalcin, our IT/IM Training & Support Consultant, has
moved from GPDV to a role as Information Management Advisor in
the Information & Access Section of the Aged, Community &
Mental Health Division of DHS. Jenk will be sorely missed by GPDV
and divisions, although his presence will still be felt as his
work is closely linked with the DHS Primary Care Partnerships, so
he will still maintain close ties with both GPDV and the
divisions.
We are recruiting to fill the gaps as soon as possible.
Annual Health Assessments
Annual Health Assessment have been available since Nov 1999 to
individuals who live in the community through the Enhanced
Primary Care New MBS Item Numbers. So far this year 19,737 out of
231,458 Victorians over 75 years (8.5%) have received an annual
health assessment.
Trial - HIC information for divisions
The HIC has just released for trial a range of Internet based
information products (MBS and PIP, with PBS to follow shortly)
for divisions of general practice. The HIC is seeking feedback on
the reports. Please contact your division if you wish to have
input.
The reports can be found at: http://www.hic.gov.au/statistics/dyn_dgp/forms/dgp_tab.shtml