PHN Commissioning

General Practitioner (GP) are undergoing fundamental change across Australia. Aging male GPs are retiring in large numbers. Newly graduated female GPs want more part‑time opportunities and better work/life balance. Medical Locals have recently been shut down and new Primary Health Networks now control flexible funds to pay GPs based on performance.

More and more GPs are also moving from ‘solo’ models to join physician‑led group practices or management‑led corporate provider models.

However, the evidence supporting the benefits of these changes is mixed. Community access, clinical outcomes and the patient’s experience of care are in many cases declining. Also GP job satisfaction is increasingly being reported in surveys as having deteriorated due to overwork and spiralling practice management costs.

The Government is also backing away from fee-for-service Medicare payments. More accountable models of care are being piloted which pay GPs based on their performance versus actual patient outcomes.

How then can Primary Health Networks better support GPs to deliver improved patient outcomes?

What we do

We help Primary Health Networks to better support GPs and allied health professionals, to improve performance in two key areas:

Primary Health Networks Commissioning for Outcomes

Successful primary health networks commissioning of services means more than just setting up a purchasing panel.

Service innovations and district wide improvement strategies must be driven by the commissioner to deliver demonstrated improvements with meaningful, cost effective outcomes.

We work with Primary Health Networks to ensure their commissioning programs are innovative and deliver real results, not just activities.