Name Eyre Peninsula Division of General Practice Division Number 511 Classification Rural Number of Member GPs 45 State South Australia Year Established 1993 Number of Member Practices 24 Postcodes Covered 5600, 5601, 5603, 5604, 5605, 5606, 5607, 5608, 5609, 5630, 5631, 5632, 5633, 5640, 5641, 5642, 5650, 5651, 5652, 5653, 5654, 5655, 5660, 5661, 5670, 5671, 5680, 5690 Population 56,369 (2001 Census) Area Covered Port Lincoln, Whyalla, Ceduna and all inbetween; a total of 45 000 square kilometres. CEO Ms Glenys Bisset Chair Dr Jerome Connolly Physical Address: EPDGP Building Port Lincoln Hospital PORT LINCOLN SA 5606 Australia Postal Address: PO Box 804 PORT LINCOLN SA 5606 Australia Email: epdgp@epdgp.org.au Phone: 08 8682 5599 Fax: 08 8682 5590 Website: http://www.epdgp.org.au

This Division was early to get started and got many projects off the ground in the first two years. The introduction of Outcomes Based Funding caused a significant reduction in the Divisions activity as the Division had approximately 12 projects underway at the time which had to finish fairly suddenly. The Division has restructured their activities to be more focussed on direct support for GPs, and they have also been involved in the Health Plus Coordinated Care trial and have received funding for the wind-down of the trials at risk patients. The Divisions mission is to improve the health outcomes for the population of Eyre Peninsula by enhancing the role of General Practice and developing partnerships with other health service providers, community groups and consumers.

Stakeholders include; Regional Health Services (Eyre Regional Health Service, Northern Regional Health Service), Port Lincoln Community Health Service, Whyalla Community Health Service, Hospitals, Ceduna/Koonibba Aboriginal Health Service and the Port Lincoln Aboriginal Health Service.

MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS

The Division has had strong and enthusiastic GP involvement in the development of projects from its earliest days, with a large number of projects approved and successful. Projects have been developed from needs identified through consumer involvement in projects. There is a continued increase of GP involvement in Division activities to current involvement of approximately 95%+ of Division GPs (for the past 3-4 years).

Diabetes Clinic Model an early project of the Division was a Multi-Disciplinary Diabetes Clinic. This achieved significant outcomes for Diabetics in Port Lincoln and a number of outlying towns. This model was successfully used in the Eyre Peninsula part of the Health Plus Coordinated Care Trial. Another development from this model is the recent restructure of the clinic to work within the new MBS item numbers the clinic is now self-funding using the new care planning item numbers.

Over 85% of GPs in our Division use computers for their clinical practice, primarily for prescribing and recall with an increasing number using them for medical records.

MBS Item Number software as a result of our involvement in coordinated care, the Division has developed a software program which incorporates all of the new MBS item numbers for Health Assessments, Care Planning and Case Conferences. This is being developed with the aim of making it available for all Divisions and GPs across Australia.

CHALLENGES FOR THE FUTURE

Achieving positive outcomes for members of our Division within our Outcomes Based Funding budget and accessing other sources of funding to extend and broaden our activities.

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