Supporting General Practice: GP Development Fund opens

ACT Health Minister, Katy Gallagher MLA, today announced the opening of the first round of the 2010 GP Development Fund – a $4 million grants program to help general practices grow and support their workforce.

“Canberrans are well aware that the ACT is experiencing a GP shortage and as part of the Government’s efforts to support general practices, we announced a $12 million package of initiatives in our 2009-10 Budget,” Ms Gallagher said.

“The first to be rolled out is the GP Development Fund which provides one-off incentive payments to general practices in the ACT for initiatives that attract and retain staff, enhance practices, establish new services, support disadvantaged groups and improve access to general practice,” she said.

The Minister said a total of $4 million was available over four years. All general practices in the ACT were eligible to apply with two grants rounds to be advertised each year.

“I anticipate that most funding applications will not exceed $50,000, however, greater amounts may be awarded for exceptional proposals and no proposal will be considered too small,” Ms Gallagher said.

The bi-annual grants will be available for proposals that fall within the following categories:

• Education and Training
• Attraction and Retention
• Innovation
• Infrastructure

Applications will be assessed on their ability to demonstrate an alignment with the ACT Government’s commitment to grow, attract and retain the general practice workforce, but this may be broadly defined, and may include projects such as improving infrastructure to accommodate greater clinical space for expanding staff numbers or to support GP trainees. Other possible examples include e-health initiatives, staff development opportunities, locum support for the needs of disadvantaged groups and innovative initiatives in care.

Government Response to GP Taskforce Final Report

The opening of the first round of the GP Development Fund coincided with the tabling of the Government’s response to the ACT GP Taskforce’s Final Report: General Practice and Sustainable Primary Health Care: The Way Forward. The Government has agreed or agreed in-principle to all of the Final Report’s recommendations.

“The Government has worked hard over the past few months to coordinate a response to the GP Taskforce’s set of recommendations, all of which have the potential to help address the workforce shortages,” Ms Gallagher said.

“The Taskforce’s method of presenting GP snapshot survey data is a particularly useful way of informing the community about bulk billing, patient intake and the availability of nurses at practices in the ACT. The Government also considers a map of GP locations in the ACT a beneficial tool for the community to better locate practices in their area as well as for Government policy and planning purposes.

“The Government’s $12 million package announced in May is also in line with several recommendations and initiatives proposed by the Taskforce and we will continue to advance these initiatives as a matter of priority.”

In response to recommendations around health records, the Minister introduced a primary Health Legislation Amendment Bill during the last sitting of the Legislative Assembly to clarify the status of e-health records and will introduce a second Amendment Bill this week to give effect to the majority of the remaining recommendations relating to access to health records.

Applications for Round 1 of the GP Development Fund will close on Friday 26 February 2010.  The second round will commence in early May, with applications due in early July.

For further information, please go to http://www.health.act.gov.au/gpdevelopmentfund or email your query to GPDevelopmentFund@act.gov.au. 

8 December 2009