Aged Care Access Initiative

The termination of the Aged Care General Practitioners Panels initiative was announced in the 2008-2009 Commonwealth Budget. This initiative was established in 2004 and was designed to facilitate the establishment of linkages between Divisions of General Practice, GPs, allied health professionals and residential aged care facilities, with the aim of improving the access of residents in facilities to a wide range of primary health services.

Programs that addressed mental health, immunisation, e-health infrastructure, communications tools, physiotherapy, dementia training, and mentoring of registrars are just some of the activities that were implemented under the GP Panel initiative.

In May 2008 the Department of Health and Ageing announced that the GP Panel program would be replaced by a new program designed to refocus on direct primary care services – GP and allied health – in aged care facilities. The new Aged Care Access Initiative commenced in July 2008.

This new Access to Allied Health Initiative has two components, a GP incentive component and an Allied Health services component.  The GP incentive payment will operate through the Practice Incentives Program (PIP) and is designed to encourage GPs to provide more services in RACFs. The incentive recognises some of the difficulties faced by GPs in providing care in these settings and aims to encourage GPs to continue to provide increased and continuing services in RACFs. The PIP payments will be administered through Medicare Australia.

The allied health services component is a payment for clinical care provided by allied health professionals in RACFs where these services are not currently covered by Medicare or other government funding arrangements. This component will be managed by the State-based Divisions of General Practice organisations in each State and Territory, in WA’s case, the Western Australian General Practice Network (see www.wagpnetwork.com.au). These organisations may then purchase allied health services directly or through contractual arrangements with individual Divisions of General Practice.

Perth Primary Care Network Aged Care Program and Update

To meet the requirements of the new Aged Care Access Initiative, Perth Primary Care Network undertook an assessment of the allied health service needs of residents of RACFs within our Division. The goal is to provide allied health clinical services in a way that improves the quality of life for the residents of RACFs.

The funding for this initiative is limited and will not be sufficient to meet all the needs of residents of RACFs. However, Perth Primary Care Network is meeting the two most important needs as identified in the assessment, namely counselling services and occupational therapy services within the dementia arena.

Perth Primary Care Network has developed a Dementia Care Mapping service to assist the family, carers and staff of aged care facilities to identify difficult behaviours and to help understand the dementia sufferers’ world through this mapping process.

Please contact the Aged Care Access Initiative Program Officer, on 08 9376 9200, if you feel your patients (who are residents of an aged care facility in our area) could benefit from Dementia Care Mapping or Counselling. Other allied health services may be provided on request from the Aged Care Facility.