27 February 2024

We are proud to be launching our first Primary Care Strategy, and we need your help with one of our first initiatives.

Whilst Austin Health plays a critical role in the health of people in our community, we acknowledge that we are just one piece of a larger health system that has primary care at its core. The future of health relies on us working together with our primary care providers to deliver a more tailored, streamlined and comprehensive system of care.

Developed in consultation with our key primary care partners, this Primary Care Strategy outlines what Austin Health will do over the next five years to improve the integration with primary care services in order to deliver better outcomes for our patients, community, staff and our health service.

The Primary Care Strategy has five Strategic Outcomes that collectively will enable us to achieve our goal:

• Integrated models of care
• Collaboration with Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations and mainstream Aboriginal health teams
• Collaboration with general practice
• Collaboration with community health services and other primary care providers
• Communication and information sharing with partners.

Together, these outcomes will provide a mechanism for Austin Health to make strategic decisions about new initiatives and work in a more collaborative and targeted way.

One of our first priorities under the Strategy is to establish better, collaborative relationships with our local GPs. Our first step for this is to establish a GP reference group. Comprising a diverse group of up to eight local GPs, this reference group will support Austin Health develop and implement our GP communication and education plans, while also provide advice on relevant strategic and operational initiatives at Austin Health.

An EOI has been released, and any GP from our community is welcome to apply to participate. More information on the EOI, including detailed Terms of Reference and compensation, can be found on our website. The EOI will close on Monday 25 March.

If you are a GP interested in this work, please visit our website for more information. If you know any GPs who may be interested, please feel free to forward the EOI.

If you have any questions about the EOI, or would like to discuss other ways that GPs can engage with Austin Health, please contact Rebecca Hurley at rebecca.hurley@austin.org.au.

We are very excited to commence this work and look forward to providing updates throughout the implementation.