Page 149 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 15 February 2012
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health centres. Scope has been built into the design of those health centres in Belconnen and Gungahlin for the provision of primary healthcare services. We have done that.
However, it may be that a GP comes to us and says, “We would actually like to have this service provided alongside our clinic.” I have said back to the GPs that the three requirements for me are that they are open seven days a week, that they are open extended hours and that they are free of charge. We are not going to be supplementing a service within general practice that does not provide those key requirements of the model that has been successful.
If it turns out that that is the way that GPs in that area would find the model acceptable, the government is open to that. If, however, we cannot reach agreement with the local GPs about how to integrate it into their own service provision then there is the opportunity for the government to operate them by ourselves in the community health centre and the provision we have made there.
In relation to the costings of the centre, the Canberra Hospital centre is roughly a $10 million operation. However, our intention was not to replicate exactly that model in the community, because you would not need a lot of the senior management that is provided and embedded in those costs at any clinic that ran outside that. In a sense, we are paying fixed costs for senior management and, therefore, the costings for the new centres have been based on the fact that we would be funding the front-line staff only. Those backend supports—the senior management, the clinical governance; all of those things that are embedded in the costs of the Canberra Hospital—are being met through the one at the Canberra Hospital.
There is no funding black hole. The requirement would be that it operates seven days a week, from 7 am until 11 pm, and that it is free of charge for the community. That is the way the Canberra Hospital model runs and that is the way that it will run in the community. As I said, if it can run alongside general practice and supplement the services that they provide—because we know that there are some benefits from having it next to pathology and imaging: that certainly came out through the evaluation—well and good. General practice, Medicare Local and the government are all working together to look at the best way of providing primary health care.
The model has not been determined. I have had some good meetings with general practice already about some possible ideas that they have about how they could integrate the nurse-led model into the services they already provide in those community settings. Those discussions will continue before we make a final decision. But, at the end of the day, what the government is saying is that we want out-of-hours access for low acuity conditions, seven days a week, free of charge in a community setting. That is what the policy outlines and that is what we will deliver.
In relation to the Canberra Hospital walk-in centre, as members would know, where they are currently located is very much part of the redevelopment of the hospital. That area where they are, in the future—several years down the track—will form part of a construction site. So there will be a need to move that centre. If the decision is taken not to have that centre in operation but perhaps move that to the Phillip health centre then that is an option before us as well, but none of those decisions have been taken.
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