Australia's First National Primary Health Care Strategy - Building On What Works

Main Category: Primary Care / General Practice
Article Date: 03 Sep 2009 - 9:00 PDT

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The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) warmly welcomes the draft national primary health care strategy and supports the Government in its ongoing efforts to develop and maintain a strong primary health care system.

Dr Chris Mitchell, RACGP President, said the RACGP is supportive of the strategy's direction, which acknowledges both the central role of general practice within primary health care and the need for reform to build on what we have already.

The college agrees that collaboration and regional integration, better use of technology, a skilled workforce with clear roles and responsibilities, investment in physical infrastructure to support teaching and teamwork and improved system performance are sound building blocks for a strong responsive and cost effective primary health care system.

The RACGP is pleased to work with all levels of Government on the four priority directions of improved access and reduced inequity, better management of chronic conditions, increasing the focus on prevention, and improving quality, safety, performance and accountability. GPs are at the forefront of primary health care in Australia and there is no group better equipped to provide solutions and leadership.

In particular, the college welcomes investments into capacity that have included:

- the 33% increase in general practitioners training numbers
- proposed incentives for expanded nurse and allied health professional roles within the team structure
- investment into general practice and primary health care infrastructure.

This is an ambitious agenda and its implementation will require the support of GPs and the teams within and around our practices.

"The evidence base for quality general practice is very strong and the coordinating and filtering role of general practice is central to Australia 's strong health outcomes. These roles must be maintained or we will end up with an American style health system that will cost more and deliver less to our communities," said Dr Mitchell.

The RACGP will continue to work with the Government over the coming months to help identify and implement the right solutions to the overarching strategies proposed.

A detailed response to the report will be available on the RACGP website at http://www.racgp.org.au/healthreform soon.

Source
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners

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