Name Ipswich and West Moreton Division of General Practice Division Number 408 Classification Urban Number of Member GPs 141 State Queensland Year Established 1994 Number of Member Practices 54 Postcodes Covered 4300, 4301, 4303, 4304, 4305, 4305, 4306, 4307, 4309, 4310, 4311,4312, 4313, 4340,4341, 4342, 4346 Population 170,540 (2001 Census) Area Covered The region lies in the South-East Queensland and covers an area of 7 951 square kilometres. It is comprised of the City of Ipswich and the surrounding rural shires of Esk, Laidley and Boonah. It extends to the NSW border to the south, Toogoolawah to the north, Laidley to the west and Brisbane to the east. CEO Ms Sharon Oxenbridge Chair Dr Phillip Burrell Physical Address: Ipswich Corporate Centre Ground Floor, 16 East Street IPSWICH QLD 4305 Australia Postal Address: PO Box 55 IPSWICH QLD 4305 Australia Email: iwmdgp@iwmdgp.org.au Phone: 07 3813 7000 Fax: 07 3813 7055 Website: http://www.iwmdgp.org.au

The Ipswich and West Moreton Division of General Practice (IWMDGP) is an outer metropolitan/rural area abutting Brisbane. The area is a major growth centre in the South East Queensland Strategic Plan. The population is diverse, predominantly lower socio-economic status, relatively high non-English speaking background. There is a substantial indigenous population and health indicators for the area are poor to very poor. About 20% of the population live in rural areas. There is a chronic shortage of GPs in both the rural and urban areas. An elected Board manages the Division at the strategic and policy level in consultation with the Management Team.  An Executive and an Audit Committee assist management in more day to day matters and report to the Board. The Division has a Community Reference Group and an active public speaking program to educate the community on health issues and to seek community input and involvement.

Major Achievements:
We offer all GPs and practices clinical learning strategies and opportunities and a range of  business advisory service in areas such as team development, practice audit and financial management. We train, develop and promote the careers of practice staff, practice managers and practice nurses.  We actively participate in regular meetings of all health service providers in the area in order to promote co-operation and joint planning and we similarly participate in a forum of all local aged care service providers. The Division has a very successful low cost psychology clinic funded by the Commonwealth and a high quality After Hours Clinic co-located with the local public hospital and staffed by a co-operative of local GPs.

Challenges for the Future:
The major problems facing the Division generally come from the combination of a continued shortage of doctors and the constant and rapidly increasing population growth of the area. In order to manage this, the Division wants to develop a series of studies showing population growth by area, population demographics, the resultant envelope of likely services demand in each area and the current and projected services that will be available. Dimensioning the inevitable gap will allow us to then look for innovative and practical solutions. Coupling demand/supply analyses with a workforce and service planning approach may reduce the likely incidence of poor health outcomes that will otherwise occur in this area.