Better health and ageing for all Australians

GP Super Clinics

About the GP Super Clinics

About the Australian Government's GP Super Clinics initiative

In this section:



Introduction

The Australian Government wants to ensure that all Australians have access to affordable, high quality, comprehensive and integrated primary care services which are convenient and accessible.

The Australian Government has committed $275.2 million over five years, from 2007-08, to establish GP Super Clinics in 36 localities across Australia. In addition to the original 31 GP Super Clinics announced during the 2007 Election, five additional clinics were announced in August and in October 2009. These clinics will be established in South Morang, Portland, Wodonga (Victoria), Cockburn (Western Australia), and Gunnedah (New South Wales).

GP Super Clinics are a key element in building a stronger national primary care system, including a greater focus on health promotion and illness prevention and better coordination between privately provided GP services, community health and other State and Territory Government funded services.

GP Super Clinics will allow new facilities and sites of excellence in primary care service delivery and health professional education and training (with a multidisciplinary focus) to be established within local communities.

It is intended that each GP Super Clinic will bring together general practitioners, nurses, visiting medical specialists, allied health professionals and other health care providers to deliver better health care, tailored to the needs and priorities of the local community.

GP Super Clinics will support primary health care providers to adopt models of care focused on best practice integrated multidisciplinary team based approaches and efficient and effective use of technology. GP Super Clinics will provide a greater focus on chronic disease prevention and management, as well as economies of scale in delivering high quality health care.

GP Super Clinics are also designed to help address one of the key areas of inefficiency and duplication in our health system by improving integration between Commonwealth funded primary care services and State and Territory funded services, both community health and hospital. In line with this objective, the Australian Government is working closely with the State and Territory Governments in the implementation of this program.

GP Super Clinics may also provide a high quality clinical training environment for medical, nursing and allied health professional students and new graduates, in addition to prevocational doctors and GP registrars.

While it is likely that GP Super Clinics will take pressure off local public hospitals, all patients will retain their right, under the Australian Health Care Agreements, to attend public hospitals and emergency departments at no cost if they so wish. Services provided at GP Super Clinics will be provided under the usual fee for service arrangements.

Any services provided through a GP Super Clinic for which a Medicare Benefits Schedule rebate is claimed, will need to be delivered under arrangements which are compliant with Section 19(2)a of the Health Insurance Act 1973.
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Program Objectives

While there is not a prescriptive model for GP Super Clinics, there are a number of core characteristics which the Commonwealth expects each funded clinic to demonstrate:
  • GP Super Clinics will provide their patients with well integrated multidisciplinary patient centred care. GP Super Clinics will support their patients, particularly those with, or at risk of, chronic disease(s), with the option of receiving the full range of health services they need in a coordinated manner, where possible and appropriate, in a single convenient location. Underpinning this care will be integrated models of clinical governance and shared care protocols, as well as a strong focus on supporting patient self management.
  • GP Super Clinics will be responsive to local community needs and priorities, including the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Ensuring GP Super Clinics address local needs and priorities and have local community support will be a key element of the establishment process. As part of a demonstrated long term commitment to local health care services, organisational governance arrangements for the clinics will need to provide for ongoing community engagement and input.
  • GP Super Clinics will provide accessible, culturally appropriate and affordable care to their patients. While health professionals will retain their autonomy over billing, GP Super Clinics will be strongly encouraged to bulk bill Medicare Benefits Schedule funded services.
  • GP Super Clinics will provide support for preventive care, including promotion of healthy lifestyles, addressing risk factor and lifestyle modification to prevent chronic disease and improving early detection and management of chronic disease.
  • GP Super Clinics will demonstrate efficient and effective use of Information Technology. This would include an electronic clinical information system that can make patients’ medical records available (with patient consent) to all practitioners (including allied health professionals) at the GP Super Clinic and to external providers as appropriate.
  • GP Super Clinics will provide a working environment and conditions which attract and retain their workforce. This could entail a range of models, including scope for health professionals to contribute clinical sessions and teaching activities, possibly on a salary basis, without needing to consider routine administrative and practice management activities. As workplaces of choice, GP Super Clinics will also provide support for primary health care research to complement clinical service delivery.
  • GP Super Clinics will be centres of high quality best practice care and will be expected to meet industry accreditation standards, including accreditation against the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners’ Standards for General Practice (3rd edition), and accreditation for training, where this is applicable. Where appropriate, GP Super Clinics would also be encouraged to participate in the Australian Primary Care Collaboratives Program.
  • Post establishment, GP Super Clinics will operate with viable, sustainable and efficient business models, drawing revenue from existing programs and initiatives (including provision of health services under usual fee for service arrangements), and potentially other sources such as community partners.
  • The GP Super Clinics program will support the future primary care workforce by providing high quality education and training opportunities supported by infrastructure for trainee consulting rooms, teaching rooms and training facilities to make general practice attractive to students, new graduates, GP trainees and registrars and other health professionals.
  • GP Super Clinics will integrate with local programs and initiatives, demonstrating enhanced co-ordination with other health services and a partnership approach to local health service planning and coordination. This will further strengthen local general practice and the broader local primary health care services.
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Service Delivery Model

The Commonwealth, States and Territories have agreed that there is no one model for GP Super Clinics. The mix of services, and potentially the target populations, for GP Super Clinics will be determined in line with local community need and priorities to complement and enhance the range of existing health services.

Within a GP Super Clinic a range of services will potentially be delivered by a number of service providers and be facilitated through physical or, in some cases, virtual (electronically supported) co-location of services. While there is no ‘one size fits all’, the types of health care services provided through a GP Super Clinic could include, but are not limited to:
  • General practice (with privately practising GPs a key element of each GP Super Clinic);
  • After hours care;
  • Facilities for regular services provided by allied health professionals, such as physiotherapists, dietitians, podiatrists, occupational therapists, and specialist care for seniors;
  • Psychology services and relevant mental health support programs including drug and alcohol counselling;
  • Consulting rooms for visiting medical specialists and access to physicians and paediatricians;
  • Facilities for practice nurses to provide comprehensive primary health care (as part of a multidisciplinary team) including early identification and intervention for chronic disease, risk modification counselling, self-management support, care planning and coordination;
  • Facilities for running regular chronic disease management programs and community education (including diabetes, obesity, asthma and smoking cessation programs);
  • The provision of dental services;
  • Linkages with key components of the local health system such as hospitals, community health services, other allied and primary health care services, health interpreting services, telephone triage services (such as the National Call Centre Network or similar) and other established telephone help lines (such as telephone counselling services);
  • Community health services funded by State and Territory governments; and
  • co-located diagnostic services, provided that these are consistent with relevant pathology and diagnostic imaging legislation.
Ideally, patients will have ready access to pharmacy services.

There is also a possibility that GP Super Clinics could provide outreach primary health care services to other areas – to further strengthen local general practice and the broader local primary health care infrastructure. Alternatively, the GP Super Clinic could provide facilities which could be accessed by GPs or other health professionals from the surrounding area. This could be described as a ‘hub and spoke’ type arrangement.

There may be a range of contributors to the services provided through the GP Super Clinic including Commonwealth, State, Territory, or local government, private practitioners (including through non government not-for-profit organisations), or private health insurance arrangements.

Some GP Super Clinics may be located in facilities owned and operated by State, Territory or local governments, such as public hospitals or community health centres.
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State and Territory Government Involvement in the Program

GP Super Clinics have been identified as a priority area by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG).

Through the COAG Health and Ageing Working Group, the Commonwealth and State and Territory Governments have committed to work collaboratively to implement this program.

All State and Territory Governments are involved in the overall design, implementation and evaluation of the program across the 36 localities.

In some localities, both the Commonwealth and State or Territory Governments will provide contributions towards establishing the GP Super Clinic.

    Disclaimer

In addition to the general disclaimer available through the link at the bottom of this website, the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing states the following: