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October 2000 | |
CONTENTS
GPDV Board Election
Beta Release of Online Health Service Directory
VicDivs Conference
Victorian practice the 1500th Accredited
AGPAL Statistics
Goodbye to Liz
Divisions' Quarterly: Mental Health
Primary Care Research Evaluation & Development
Progress on the Statewide GP Registery (GPR) Victoria leads on EPC
GPDV Board Election
The call for nominations for election to the board of GPDV has been sent to divisions inviting them to forward nominations by 4 pm on Friday 27 October 2000.
The Board members retiring by rotation this year, and eligible for re-election, are
Metropolitan
Dr Rosie Colahan Central Bayside
Dr John Meaney Dandenong
Rural & Regional
Dr Julie Thompson CW Gippsland
Dr Chris Pearce North East Vic
(Dr Pearce filled a casual vacancy caused by the resignation of Dr Paul Hemming)
If the number of nominations is greater than the number of positions available, a postal ballot will be held. All divisions will receive a ballot paper to enable them to vote for candidates in their own category. The closing time for the receipt of ballots will be 4 pm on Friday 17 November 2000.
The result of the ballot will be announced at the AGM on Sunday 19 November 2000.
Beta Release of Online Health Service Directory
Over the last seven months our IT/IM Training and Support Consultant, Jenk Akyalcin, has had the pleasure to work with a team of final year Computer Science and Software Engineering students from Monash University. Members of the Monash Team are Alex Ting, Clint Daulo, Cecilia Lam Lai Yeng, Nicholas Tan Nyee Heng and Santosh Gurung. The Team worked diligently to develop a Web-based searchable database known as the General Services Directory.
The beta version of the General Services Directory is now ready for viewing over the Web. Please go to https://gpdv.com.au/gsd/pages/index.asp Note the directory has been populated with "dummy data".The final version and user manuals will be provided to GPDV in mid October. It will include an installation program so that GPs without web access can use the database on a local computer. Copies of the CD will be distributed to Victorian divisions free of charge.
The software has been developed to meet the expressed needs of several rural divisions in particular. It is particularly relevant to IM/IT developments within the Primary Care Partnerships.
The faculty of Computer Science and Software Engineering at Monash University is keen to engage students in industry projects. Please contact Mr Jason Ceddia, Project Coordinator at Monash, for more information. Phone 9903 2463 or e-mail Jason.Ceddia@csse.monash.edu.au.
VicDivs Conference
The second GPDV conference with the theme of Managing Change will be held on March 30th and 31st 2001.
Our second conference offers a program of national and international speakers expert in the major issues affecting the future of general practice. The first day of the conference will discuss the 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.
This is an opportunity, especially for the board members of divisions, to participate in discussion of the broad issues that the program is trying to address and to play a part in influencing change.
Brochures and registration forms will be sent to divisions and other stakeholders by the end of October.
Register before December 15 to get the $100 earlybird discount.Victorian practice the 1500th Accredited
Congratulations to Dr Andrew Griffiths, a rural solo practitioner in the Curdie Street Clinic in Cobden, and to
his staff, on becoming the 1500th practice to achieve AGPAL accreditation.
AGPAL Statistics
As at 26 September over 70% of practices, or more than 1800, were registered for AGPAL Accreditation.SA 94% TAS 88.5% QLD 85.1% VIC 82.2% WA 67.3% NT 58.5% NSW 54.1% ACT 49.5%Goodbye to Liz
Liz Hogan left GPDV at the end of September to take up a position with Australian Volunteers International as a program co-ordinator for Papua New Guinea. Liz worked as a Divisions' Consultant for two years and also made a major contribution to our work in rural health and in the GP Education portfolio and developed the substantial webpage devoted to GP Education. We thank her for her hard work and achievements and look forward to hearing from her on the ground in PNG.
Divisions' Quarterly: Mental Health
The Summer 2000-2001 issue of Victorian Divisions' Quarterly will include articles on the theme of the role of the GP in mental health. We are particularly interested in receiving short articles from GPs who have participated in division mental health programs to report on what they have gained, how their practice has benefited, what the ongoing issues are at the practice level. We would like to print three or four different views so it is important that each contribution is brief.
Maximum 750 words.
Due date: Friday 17th November
We also welcome other articles (1500 words) either on mental health or on other matters of interest to the Divisions Program.
Primary Care Research Evaluation & Development
The Departments of General Practice at Monash and Melbourne Universities and the Department of Rural Health at the University of Melbourne have been funded by DH&AC to prepare a strategic plan for Primary Care Research Evaluation & Development (PC RED). This program is to build the capacity of GPs and divisions to engage in research. The plan is due in mid October and will cover four years. They have been visiting or interviewing key informants in divisions to identify major issues and concerns, the academic support which divisions would like to receive from the universities and potential topics for research.
Most divisions identified the pressures on GPs caused by medical workforce shortages as a significant barrier to participation in research, and this was particularly evident in the rural divisions. Comments included that it would be hard getting GPs to do research as well as their existing work, GPs do not have time, they are under pressure to deliver GP services.
Involving the division was seen as crucial to the success of PC RED, as the divisions know what will interest the GPs, the strategies that work in involving GPs and how to support their participation. The divisions want to be involved in all stages of research; needs identification and planning for implementation, for example, not merely as data collectors. Division plans and programs are seen as the starting point for research issue development. Training for division staff in addition to training for GPs was seen as vital, if divisions were to sustain involvement in research.
Divisions want research that is focused on what happens in general practice, on the role of the GP, and on support for best practice. Comments included that the research needs to focus on general practice in the broadest sense, including both the work that that GPs do and the work that divisions do. They also mention helping GPs and divisions to see the potential for research in the large amounts of data that GPs already have in their practices.
Divisions regret the loss of support from the SERUs and want to receive support from academic departments in a number of ways. They want assistance with data analysis, design of research, training, and evaluation of programs. They hope that they will be able to have a relationship with the universities that means they have students placed in divisions, and that there are appointments of academic staff to divisions. They are also looking for the academic departments to work together to ensure that the increase in knowledge gained from research activities is made available to divisions and GPs.
Progress on the Statewide GP Registery (GPR)
GP Contact Information
The GPR currently contains contact information for 4275 GPs. The validation process for current data is complete. Each GP listed on the GPR database has received a validation fax from GPDV.
GPDV/Hospital Contract
The contract between the subscriber (hospital) and GPDV will be in the form of an agreement. It will be available via the GPR web site when it goes live. Hospitals will need to download the contract, accept the terms and conditions, sign it and return to GPDV in order to be given access to the Registry.
Note: The draft contract is with DHS for final approval.
Expected date to "go live"
As soon as the contract is finalised, the GPR will go live.
Cost of subscription
Vivien Adler of the DHS's Acute Health Division has secured approval to provide GPDV with further funding for maintenance of the GPR until June 2003. This means access to the system and the data will be at no cost to hospitals until at least June 2003.
Victoria leads on EPC
Victorian GPs' uptake of the new Enhanced Primary Care MBS Items compares well with other states. Victoria and SA have the highest uptake of the new items by GPs: 36% of GPs in Victoria and SA have used one of the new items. By far the most frequently used items are for Health Assessments in which Victoria is second to NSW in the number performed but second to Queensland on a population basis. About 12,000 annual health assessments have been undertaken for Victorians aged over 75 years out of an eligible population of 231,500. Therefore 5% of the eligible Victorian population has had an annual Health Assessment. This compares with 4% in NSW, 6% in QLD and 3.5% in SA.
More information about the uptake of all the new MBS items is at http://www.hic.gov.au/statistics/dyn_mbs/forms/mbs_tab4.shtml
