Services & Programs

Programs

General practice advocacy – GPpartners, as a part of the division’s network, has an advocacy role. We monitor the health environment and represents local general practitioner opinions, needs and solutions to policy makers, including local politicians, state government and federal government. We work with other general practice representative bodies to provide advice on issues that matter to GPs and to the profession.

GP & practice support – We provide personalised support for both GPs and general practice staff on a range of clinical and practice system topics. We provide training and advice in practices when needed. Our expert staff are available to assist GPs and their staff with clinical, practice management and organisational issues, including a focus on improving practice systems, better management of patients with chronic disease and informing GPs about quality use of medicines. We also have a range of products and resources available to compliment our services.

Education – GPpartners is an endorsed provider of professional development for GPs and nurses. Professional development events are developed with local GPs and we utilise the expertise of local services and other health professionals to provide training that is relevant and up-to-date. A yearly calendar of events is available for both GPs and general practice staff as well as in-practice training and education.

Chronic disease management – GPpartners provides a variety of programs and support to assist GPs and their staff to better manage patients with chronic medical conditions. These initiatives range from helping practices to implement better information management systems to clinical education and training, to running trials and programs to test alternative models of coordinating multidisciplinary care. Areas of focus include the elderly, mental health and using MBS items to maximum benefit for both the GP and patient.

Community and hospital – Our GPs and staff are part of local liaison networks with public hospitals and community health services. GPs can access our GP liaison officers to provide feedback to these services. Liaison teams operate at the Royal Brisbane & Women's, Royal Children's and The Prince Charles Hospitals. Other initiatives such as the GP Register and Queensland Health Staff Awards encourage effective communication between sectors.

Publications

GPpartners publishes a range of regular communications to keep GPs and practice staff up-to-date on clinical and industry news including public heath matters, government initiatives, local services and programs, GPpartners’ initiatives and practice management issues. See Publications

Special projects

Aged Care Program – GPs working with Residential Aged Care Facilities to improve access to medical services for patients. Funded by the Australian Government Department of Health Ageing under the Aged Care GP Panels initiative.

Brisbane MIND – provides GPs access to private psychological services from trained Psychologists to support patients who would otherwise be disadvantaged in accessing these services. Funded by the Australian Government Department of Health & Ageing’s ‘Better Outcomes in Mental Health Care’ initiative.

Collaboratives Program - offers support and training to assist GPs and practice staff to identify and implement small changes that will lead to improved patient outcomes, using a 'plan, do, study, act' methodology.

Division Information System – a customised web-based database developed by GPpartners with Polymorphic Solutions. Now used by more than 50 divisions of general practice. Support and training for all divisions is available.

Health Record eXchange – a shared electronic health summary and document exchange system that can be used by general practitioners, hospital staff and other health care services to share critical patient information. Development is currently funded by the Australian Government Department of Health & Ageing under a ‘Managed Health Networks Grant'.

Medical Assisting –  the Medical Assisting training course is an Australian first. Developed by doctors for the medical practice setting. Medical assistants are vocationally trained to assist with practice administration and clerical duties, clinical tasks and organisation of patient services.

Team Care Coordination - aims to improve the health and wellbeing of patients with chronic and complex conditions through a coordinated care team approach, with a service coordinator assisting the GP to manage and coordinate health care for patients. Supported by the Health Record eXchange. Team Care Coordination is primarily funded by Queensland Health and Medibank Private.  

Team Care Gold – a coordinated care demonstration project with the Australian Department of Veterans’ Affairs for Gold Card holders. Uses a model of care that includes a team approach (GP, nurse, providers) and the use of an electronic health record.