Working together to improve after hours care

Do you have ideas and solutions to improve after hours primary health care for your community?

The PHN is working collaboratively with stakeholders to identify how we can work together to improve access to after hours care in towns, cities and regions throughout Western Victoria in the 'after hours' period:

• Monday-Friday, before 8am and after 6pm
• Saturdays before 8am and after midday; and
• all day Sundays and public holidays.

Western Victoria PHN is committed to a process of co-design - that service system stakeholders actively identify solutions and help prioritise what should be done regionally.

We are looking to hear ideas to address service duplication; service gaps; way to support providers to deliver care; or improve the patient experience.

Larter Consulting has been engaged by the PHN to support this process in two stages:

Stage 1: Provides stakeholders opportunities to raise ideas that may improve after hours primary health care in their local community.

Stage 2: Provides stakeholders the opportunity to prioritise ideas and discuss how they can be practically implemented at the local level.

This online Meeting Place provides you a number of ways to make sure your insights are heard.

YOU CAN CHOOSE TO PARTICIPATE IN ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING:

• Public discussion forums. You can add your voice and perspective to an existing topic, or start your own topic, in a public channel
• Map your ideas. Drop a pin on any town, suburb or region in Western Victoria to comment or add to a suggested idea or solution
• Review our maps. We have mapped the drive time to available services in the after hours periods. We invite your comment on these maps.
• Private survey. This asks about the same topics listed in the discussion forums, but is private - others cannot read your input
• Q&As. Ask us a question about the project, and we will provide an answer.
• Post case studies and local examples. You may wish to share what's working well in your community; what's worked well in the past; or describe an example of what's working well elsewhere in Victoria or beyond. You can also give examples of what the community is looking for, how well a particular service is working, or what sort of workforce may be required for the future.

We hosted a series of workshops as an alternative way of hearing from our stakeholders.

• Warrnambool (webinar ONLY) - Tuesday 18 September
• Stawell (in person ONLY) - Wednesday 19 September
• Geelong - Wednesday 26 September
• Ballarat - Wednesday 26 September

For more information on the workshops click here

Not all ideas for improvement will necessarily require funding from the PHN. The PHN receives a small amount of Commonwealth funding to work with stakeholders to plan and coordinate after hours health services, focusing on addressing gaps in service provision, ‘at risk’ populations and improving service integration. After hours primary care is principally funded through the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) and the Practice Incentives Program (PIP).