Better health and ageing for all Australians

GP Super Clinics

About the GP Super Clinics Program

GP Super Clinics are a key element in building a stronger national primary health care system.

In this section:


Introduction

Australia needs a health care system that keeps people well, not just one that looks after them when they are sick. The Australian Government is committed to building a stronger primary health care system that is more efficient, lowers rates of avoidable hospital admissions, reduces health inequalities and improves health outcomes.

The Australian Government is taking action through its National Health and Hospitals Network.

The National Health and Hospitals Network will ensure that services are designed around the needs of patients, with a strong orientation towards prevention, early intervention and high quality integrated care. This will also take pressure off our public hospitals and improve the financial sustainability of our health and hospital system.

A strong primary health care sector is critical to the future success of our health care system. It focuses on keeping people well and able to participate in life and work, rather than just looking after them when they are sick.

Building on its commitment to taking funding and policy responsibility for GP and primary health care, the Australian Government will also strengthen these services to ensure patients receive better care in the community, and ensure Australians have better and more convenient access to these services close to home.

The National Health and Hospital Reform Commission Report June 2009, and the National Primary Health Care Strategy, identified infrastructure as a cornerstone to increasing the capacity of primary health care to adapt to our current challenges, including:
  • the growing burden of chronic disease;
  • avoidable hospital admissions;
  • changes in treatment meaning that patients need greater and more complex care in the community; and
  • increasing demand for clinical placements and training facilities for primary health care students and health professionals.
In the 2010-11 Budget the Australian Government committed a further $370.2 million to improve the quality and accessibility of primary health care services by supporting the establishment of 28 new GP Super Clinics and providing funding to upgrade and extend around 425 general practices, primary care and community health services, and Aboriginal Medical Services to improve access to integrated GP and primary health care.

This builds on the Government’s previous investment of $280.2 million to establish 36 GP Super Clinics across Australia.

GP Super Clinics are a key element in building a stronger national primary health care system including a greater focus on health promotion and illness prevention and better coordination between GPs and allied health services, community health and other state and territory funded services.

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.

As with the original GP Super Clinics, the additional 28 GP Super Clinics will offer a more extensive array of primary care services in a single location than traditional general practices, with integrated services delivered by teams of health professionals. They will open for extended hours and have significant capacity for inter-professional clinical training and education.

The nature of the primary health care workforce continues to change. Multidisciplinary teams are increasingly broadening this workforce beyond general practice, and supported by technology, are enabling new service models. New doctors want more flexibility in their career and working conditions than traditional models of general practice, particularly in regional areas. GP Super Clinics continue to offer flexibility around roles and present opportunities for different ways of delivering services.

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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 peoples and older Australians in Residential Aged Care Facilities and community based settings. 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 or 4th 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.
  • GP Super Clinics 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

There is no one model for GP Super Clinics. The potential range of services and potential target populations for GP Super Clinics will be determined in line with local community health care needs 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 multiple service providers and be facilitated through agreed shared clinical service arrangements and through physical co-location. The types of health care services provided through a GP Super Clinic could include, but are not limited to:
  • General practice (with practising GPs an essential element of each GP Super Clinic);
  • 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;
  • Facilities for practice nurses to provide comprehensive primary health care (as part of a multidisciplinary team), including early identification and intervention activities for chronic disease, risk modification counselling, self-management support, care planning and coordination;
  • Facilities for running regular chronic disease management programs and community education (e.g. weight management and smoking cessation programs);
  • The provision of dental services – both public and private;
  • 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;
  • Co-located diagnostic services, provided that these are consistent with relevant pathology and diagnostic imaging legislation. Co-location of diagnostic imaging services may require consideration of specific building standards; and
  • A health resource library for patient education.

All of the GP Super Clinics announced as 2010-11 commitments will offer hours of opening that extend beyond 8am-6pm weekdays and 9am-12 noon Saturdays.

Ideally, patients of GP Super Clinics will have ready access to pharmacy services.

Services within a GP Super Clinic may be delivered by a range of providers, including Commonwealth, State, Territory or local governments, private sector or non-profit organisations.

There is also the possibility that a GP Super Clinic could provide outreach primary health care services to other primary care facilities – to further strengthen local general practice and the broader local primary health care infrastructure. Alternatively, the GP Super Clinic could provide facilities or services, which could be accessed by existing health service providers in the surrounding area.

These “outreach” and “inreach” services could be provided as part of a single clinic arrangement, or as part of a broader arrangement which could be described as a ‘hub and spoke” arrangement.

More information is available through the GP Super Clinics National Program Guide 2010

    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: