Collaboration is the key to developing primary health care

Posted 5 July 2013

The Centre is working with South Eastern Sydney Local Health District and the South Eastern and Eastern Sydney LHDs as they develop a more integrated approach to primary health care. Gawaine Powell Davies sits on the Collaboration Committee with the Local Health District and Medicare Locals and is part of a group overseeing a consultancy to develop a shared framework for developing primary health care.

This will see GPs and private allied health services working more closely with community health services and hospitals to meet the needs of the South Eastern Sydney community. “The wide variety of funding sources and the associated constraints on services to be delivered with the funding has resulted in fragmentation across the health care system.  This creates problems for people who need to get services from different providers” said Tish Bruce, Deputy Director, Ambulatory and Primary Health Care in the Local Health District. “This collaboration should help the LHD and Medicare Locals get together around the health needs of the community rather than working on their own.”

The Centre also works closely with South Western and Sydney Local Health Districts on issues relating to primary health care development.