GPs are encouraged to take full advantage of government payments to help improve patient outcomes and support their practice.
Under the Federal Government’s Workforce Incentive Program, up to $130,000 a year is available for practices looking to build their multidisciplinary teams.
Practices can use the funding to help employ nurses, midwives, allied health professionals and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers and practitioners. Rural loading can also apply.
WA Primary Health Alliance Primary Care Executive General Manager Bernadette Kenny said the Alliance was seeing more practices building multidisciplinary teams to benefit patients with complex and chronic care needs.
“In addition to allowing individual practice team members to work at the top of their scope, the practices we talk to report a number of other benefits including increased clinician and patient satisfaction, better workflows and efficiencies, and, importantly, improved treatment compliance and health outcomes,” she said.
She said the Workforce Incentive Program is a great way to “alleviate some of the financial burden associated with the setup of such a model”.
“We encourage practices to consider how multidisciplinary team care might work for them.”
The amount of funding a practice receives is determined by practice size, minimum hours worked and location, among other factors.
Pramana Medical Centre in Gosnells has a multidisciplinary team that includes GPs, pharmacists, health educators, exercise physiologists, chiropractors, a nurse practitioner and an optometrist.
The centre’s Dr Priya Krishnan said joint management of patients had led to better care, including for a female patient with poorly controlled diabetes.
“So, on one day, she saw the podiatrist, the pharmacist, the exercise physiologist, and the chiropractor was also involved in our practice,” she said in a recent interview with WAPHA.
At the following case conference, Dr Krishnan said she learned that the patient had bilateral peripheral neuropathy, possible sciatic region issues and the pharmacist changed the insulin that she was on.
“All that took place in a 15-minute case conference, so it was really good. This is an example of a patient that is willing to engage as well,” she added.
Under the Workforce Incentive Program, rural generalist and primary care doctors can also receive Rural Advanced Skills payments.
According to WAPHA, doctors can apply for the payments up to three times between 1 January 2023 and 31 December 2025. Doctors can apply up to three times any time before 30 March 2026 for services provided since 1 January 2023.
Doctors providing primary care, emergency and/or advanced skills in some rural and remote locations can claim up to $21,000 each year.
WAPHA advised that doctors who received a Rural Advanced Skill payment for services provided in 2023 can apply again for a second payment for services provided in 2024.
They can apply as soon as they have completed the service levels required for the maximum payment in the twelve-month period.
For more information on the Workforce Incentive Program, visit the Department of Health and Aged Care’s website.