Mission statement
The role of the NRGPN is to promote general practice as the key to optimal health care by supporting its members to improve the quality of their professional lives and the care they provide their community.

About us
We are an incorporated, not-for profit association of GPs with 180 members and service a region with a broad spread of regional and rural areas, together with coastal and country issues. Based in the city of Lismore in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, Australia, our area includes the surrounding towns of Alstonville, Ballina, Bangalow, Brunswick Heads, Byron Bay, Casino, Evans Head, Kyogle, Lennox Head, Maclean, Mullumbimby and Yamba.
 
What is a division of general practice?
Divisions are formal organisations of GPs within a geographical area. Nationwide, 121 divisions provide a framework for GPs to interact with each other and with health services, community groups and the public.

• In this division, this happens through health projects such as immunisation, mental health, post natal shared care and youth health.
• Specific projects also assist GPs with practice related issues, such as IMIT, accreditation, NPS (National Prescribing Service) and EPC (Enhanced Primary Care).
• Continuing professional development (CPD) and GP recruitment are catered for through the CPD/locum and rural workforce projects.
• The media department and the community liaison project keep the public informed of the division's activities.
• The division publishes three websites, the divisional website, a clinical website, Medicine Australia (www.medicineau.net.au) and a vaccination information site for parents, "Vax 'em!" (www.vaccination.org.au).

Divisions are primarily funded under the Commonwealth Health and Family Services, Divisions of General Practice Program. Funding also comes from NSW Health and the private sector. 
 
Stakeholders include GPs, specialists and other divisions, the Northern Rivers Area Health Service (NRAHS), hospitals, community and public health services, Australian Medical Association (AMA), Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), Rural Doctors Association (RDA), Commonwealth and State governments, community and other organisations.

Major achievements

The division has evolved into an organisation that is responsive to its members, providing a strong focus for the GP community to take an active involvement in both community and regional health needs outside their own consulting rooms. The ability to provide quality projects and initiatives has seen this process developed in a more formalised manner, strengthening links with key stakeholders in health, and consolidating the GP as a key member in a team approach to health care.

The organisational structure has targeted key staff to take a greater role in coordinating each of four identified areas of activity in order to ensure that each area addresses the requirements of outcomes based funding (OBF). The extent to which the division has been able to consolidate itself as a key stakeholder in health issues in the Northern Rivers area is emphasised in its four key program areas.

• Organisational management. In which the division will look to maintain and extent its ability to provide an accountable and effective infrastructure that provides the foundation for the success of other activities through the division. Integral to this program, is the ability to adapt to the changing needs of members and the communities they serve, emphasised by the encouragement of wider member involvement in divisional activities.
• Support structures for GPs. Being a rural area, workforce issues are a major problem that the division will continue to address by the provision of locum support, as well as involvement in programs aimed toward both recruitment and retention of GPs to the area. This has included involvement with a number of universities for student placements, as well as with the RACGP training program.
• Divisional relationships with stakeholders. Community input has been sought at a number of levels and, through the community liaison project awareness of the division in the wider community, has been achieved, with an increase in contacts made to the division inviting GP input into health charters, focus groups, and educational events. Central to the division is its high profile in the community through its ongoing media program and through GPSpeak (magazine,) and MedicineAu, nrdgp.org.au and "Vax 'em!" (websites), which have provided recognition and points of contact for other interested stakeholders.
• Population health and local areas of need issues. The NRGPN has benefited from being able to implement projects that have provided significant impacts. Early projects such as Drinkcheck and immunisation have involved close collaboration with other key stakeholders establishing links that are essential in the OBF environment. Significantly, identified areas of need that have historically been difficult to address due to limited resources of both expertise and funding are now incorporated in the division's plans for the future, namely issues of mental health, youth health, post-natal depression and further training in information technology.

Challenges for the future

Improving and targeting initiatives that provide services to members. The NRGPN recognises that as a rural division, support and maintenance programs that meet the needs of GP members are a priority.

• Improving patient-GP interaction will continue through the various activities undertaken through the division. The division will look to extend these activities into areas identified as key areas throughout the region.
• Meeting the division strategic plan, in which the four program areas of infrastructure, GP support, relationships with key stakeholders and population health initiatives have been outlined.