CURRENT PROGRAMS AND PROJECTS

Division Management

The Division will have an ongoing program which assesses and caters for the needs of the population of Eyre Peninsula, particularly the GP population. This program area will encompass the infrastructure requirements of the Division including personnel, reporting, data collection, management and membership. The Division will actively seek additional funding and participate in State and national Division and health planning activities.

Professional Support for GPs

The Divisions workforce program includes assessing and addressing the GP workforce needs of our rural division. They will collaborate with the SA Rural and Remote Medical Support Agency to help practices recruit new GPs. The Division will develop and provide support resources to GPs, their families and their practices. They also provide a quality education program for GPs which is specific to their needs.

Information Management/Information Technology

The Eyre Peninsula Division has identified Information Management and Information Technology (IM/IT) as a major area for development. GPs in the region have a high uptake of computers in their practices and the Division will continue to support them with training, education and resources. A significant part of the activity in this area is the development of user-friendly software for GPs to use in managing patient data related to the new Medical Benefits Scheme (MBS) item numbers, and databases for the Division to collect and manage data for our own and the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care (DHAC) reporting requirements.

Health Program Activity

Although the Divisions involvement in health programs is smaller than they would like, they will participate in a variety of health fields as identified by their members. The Division will provide a large amount of support for GPs and their practice staff in their uptake of the new MBS item numbers, particularly for those GPs who are in onedoctor towns and have very little time to learn a new way of managing patients. They will work with the State Health organisations in the provision of Mental Health, Diabetes and Aboriginal Health Services and support GP use of best practice guidelines particularly in the areas of Diabetes, Cardiovascular disease, Injury Prevention, Aged Care and Immunisation. The Divisions aim is to continue to improve the Division immunisation rates through the Immunisation Program and participate in Divisional and Regional Primary Health Care activities.

Barriers and perspectives on the implementation of programs

• Lack of funding small amounts of money allocated to programs.
• Large distances much of funding spent on travel expenses and travel time.
• Distances prohibit regular face-to-face meetings of Management Committee, GPs and Division personnel.
• GP workforce two thirds of GPs are solo practitioners and find it hard to get locums for regular leave requirements.
• GP workforce seven towns (out of 11) in the Division have only one GP. This makes it very difficult for them to access regular Continuing Medical Education (CME) and attend other Division activities. One town is 400 kms from either Port Lincoln or Whyalla where most CME events are held.

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