Swine Flu Update
Australia’s pandemic response phase stands at PROTECT nationally. All Australian jurisdictions will move to PROTECT activities by June 26. At present H1N1 Influenza 09 is best described as mild in most but severe in some. However, the disease will be watched closely for any changes that indicate it may be becoming more severe.
The focus of the PROTECT phase is:
• identifying members of vulnerable groups in whom this disease may be severe
• early treatment of those identified as vulnerable who become ill
• treating those with moderate or severe disease (especially respiratory difficulty)
• voluntary home isolation of cases (especially school children), but not quarantining of contacts
• not providing post exposure prophylaxis to any contacts, and not treating those with mild disease but who are not in a vulnerable group
• re-focus of testing for H1N1 Influenza 09 to vulnerable groups, institutions, outbreaks and those with moderate or severe disease, as part of a surveillance framework.
The Commonwealth Department of Health summary sheet for GPs is available from here.>
The Victorian Health Professionals Alert notification is available here.>
A complete collection of resources and links about the swine flu is available from here.>
Further information is available from the following sources: -
General practice resources & fact sheet here.>
RACGP fact sheets here.>
RACGP Pandemic Flu Kit here.>
Department of Human Services (Victoria) here.>
Department of Health and Ageing
Pandemic Influenza Website here.>
Pandemic Triage Flow Chart here.>
List of pharmacies supplying Tamiflu is available from here.>
Prescribing in General Practice
Jane Spence the PGPN National Prescribing Service project work and pharmacist will be approaching practices to participate in this project. It is a quality improvement activity for GPs and focuses on tow clinical areas: the management of hypertension and chronic heart failure. The project will help GPs review their current prescribing and management of these conditions compared to best practice guidelines and their own peers. Practices will be required to have computerised medical records and there will be some financial compensation for their involvement.
E-Health Incentive
All practices should have received notification of the new PIP eHealth Incentive which begins with its first payment in August 2009. This replaces the previous PIP IM/IT incentive with the final payment to practices in May of this year. The first August payment is for the May-July quarter – this means you should have completed the Application Form by April 30th.
There are 3 requirements that a practice must meet:
- have a secure messaging capability provided by an eligible supplier – as yet there are no listed suppliers.
- a PKI practice location certificate and an individual PKI certificate for each doctor of the practice.
- all doctors must have access to a number of key electronic clinical resources from their desktops.
Some information such as the links for signing up for PKI have been sent to practices already. The list of required key electronic clinical resources will be released on the 14th April 2009. For quick access to e-Health links go to Programs Practice Support.
Peninsula Health GP Liaison
Need any information about Peninsula Health Services? A good place to start is at the Peninsula Health GP Liaison page here.>. While there do the quick 2 minute survey on discharge summaries. From this page you can find information about outpatients, inpatients, maternity services, the emergency department, referral templates and much more.
PGPN Events
GPs and practice staff can see an up to date list of events being run by the Network by clicking on Events in the left hand navigation bar.
|
PGPN Relocation
Due to Frankston Community Health requiring more space at the Frankston Integrated Health Centre PGPN is shifting to the Mt Eliza site of Peninsula Health. This is scheduled to occur in late July. Further details re address and contact details will be advertised prior to the event.
Mental Health Training requirement and the New MBS item
As you will be aware, the Federal budget announcement some changes to claiming the GP Mental Health Care Plan. In effect, Mental Health Skills training, formerly known as Level 1 Training will be required to claim the item at the current rate of reimbursement. A new item will be introduced for GPs who have not completed the training. The requirements of this item have not been announced but we understand it will have lower reimbursement. We are awaiting confirmation from the Department as to when this change will take effect and any proposed changes to Level 1 accreditation. In the meantime, to check your Mental Health Training status, please contact the GP Mental Health Standard Collaboration on 03 8699 0554 or mentalhealth@racgp.org.au Due to privacy we can not obtain confirmation of your status on your behalf.
In the meantime, there are a number of on-line Mental Health Skills Training (MHST) options for training through gplearning:
-
Managing bipolar in General Practice (Online - 1st January 2008 to 31st December 2010)
Contact: www.gplearning.com.au; gplearning helpdesk 1300 284 789
-
Managing Psychosis in General Practice (Online - 1st January 2008 to 31st December 2010)
Contact: www.gplearning.com.au; gplearning helpdesk 1300 284 789
-
Managing Depression in General Practice (Online – 1st January 2008 to 31st December 2010)
Contact: www.gplearning.com.au; gplearning helpdesk 1300 284 789
New Guidelines - Heart and Stroke Risk
A new guideline for GPs on assessing heart and stroke risk has been released. The guideline features recommendations and tools to help GPs, Aboriginal health workers and other health professionals to determine the likelihood a patient will develop cardiovascular disease (CVD) within five years. To assess risk, GPs will use blood pressure, age, cholesterol, whether the patient smokes, and whether the patient has other risk factors such as diabetes, kidney disease, irregular heart beat and a family history of premature CVD. The guideline was developed by the National Vascular Disease Prevention Alliance (NVDPA), made up of Kidney Health Australia, Diabetes Australia, National Heart Foundation of Australia and National Stroke Foundation. Further information available from the NVDPA member websites: www.diabetesaustralia.com.au; www.heartfoundation.org.au, www.kidney.org.au, www.strokefoundation.com.au
Positions Vacant
The PGPN website now has a page which list positions vacant and people looking for work in the PGPN area. Practices can advertise for staff by contacting Lynne Cooper. This page also list positions vacant at PGPN. The page can be accessed from here.
NPS Launch of ‘Medicine Name Finder’ Tool
The National Prescribing Service (NPS) has recently launched the Medicine Name Finder tool. By using the NPS Medicine Name Finder patients can learn to identify prescription medicines by active ingredient name and brand name. The tool is intended for wide use with patients or their carers able to use this on line tool for self education purposes.For more information or to use the Medicine Name Finder visit the NPS website here.>
|
|
Home
