Special General Meeting

The Board called a Special General Meeting for 27 May 2010. This Special General Meeting was called to make changes to the Constitution that allows directors to serve an additional 2 years on the Board.

Board Communique May 2010

Board Communique for May 2010, including topics on the Health Reform, Special General Meeting and Members Briefing Session.

Aboriginal Health

Sarah Kleinitz is our Indigenous Health Project Officer working on the Close the Gap project. 

Important information on claiming the Bulk-Billing incentive for After Hours Services

Between 1 May 2010 and 1 July 2010 doctors claiming the higher bulk-billing incentive for MBS items 597, 598, 599 or 600 will need to use a new item 10985. 

HEALTH ALERT - Legionnaires’ disease

Notifications for Legionnaires’ disease this year have doubled in numbers compared to the same time period in 2009 and the cause for this is unclear.

Doctor’s bag supplies - order your 2010-2012 book now

To order your doctor’s bag supplies you need an Emergency drug (Doctor’s Bag) book, which is updated every two years.

Medicare Australia welcomes midwives and nurse practitioners

From 1 November 2010, (subject to passage of legislation) midwives and nurse practitioners will be able to access certain items in the MBS and prescribe certain PBS medicines.

New PBS co-payment measure

A new PBS co-payment measure means many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients will be eligible for cheaper PBS medicines.

New health assessment templates available

NEVDGP has an updated MD template for health assessment (non-ATSI 75+ year olds and ATSI 15-55,55+) on thier website. This includes tick boxes for the appropriate time-based item numbers (701, 703, 705, 707 and 715) as well as space to record nurse and doctor time of the assessment.

Referrals Wanted - Life! Taking Action on Diabetes

Croydon, Lilydale, Healesville and Pakenham Courses

Locum support at Kinglake Ranges Health Centre Urgently Required

Rural Workforce Agency Victoria (RWAV) requires urgent Locum support at the Kinglake Ranges Health Centre.

Home Medicine Reviews

Please remember to consider a Home Medicines Review for your patients. These can be a stand alone item (Bill Item 900) or use an HMR and EPC together.

Clinical audit: Management of stable COPD and smoking cessation

Enrolment in the NPS Clinical audit: Management of stable COPD and smoking cessation is open until Friday 4th June 2010.

Cold Chain Management

There are a large number of practices that are submitting their Vaccine Fridge Temperature recording for review and being marked not met.

MEDIA RELEASE - Budget will deliver health care future

Patients will be the big winners from the Federal Budget commitments to fund more Practice Nurses, put money into eHealth and invest in better access to after hours care, says Eastern Ranges GP Association CEO Ms Kristin Michaels.

PHERT Medicines Australia Vaccines Industry Group Immunisation Scholarship 2010

The Public Health Education and Research Trust (PHERT), the Public Health Association of Australia?s (PHAA) Trust, is calling for applications for its 2010 post-Honours and post-Masters research scholarship for immunisation, valued at 15,000 dollars. This scholarship is competitive and is only available to financial PHAA members. It is acceptable for applicants to join the PHAA.

Graduate Certificate in Nursing (General Practice)

The University of the Sunshine Coast offers this accredited course in collaboration with the Australian General Practice Network. Enrolment commences June 2010.

Latest news from the NPS

NPS clinical audits available for the QPI year: 1 May 2010 – 30 April 2011

Questions and Answers on the CDM items

The following two quotations are taken from the newly updated Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing “Questions and Answers on
the CDM items”, available at http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/mbsprimarycare-chronicdiseasemanagementqanda#4_3

ERGPA Board Communique - April 2010

Board Communique for April 2010, including topics on Strategic Planning, Health Reform and Succession Planning

New nursing titles for Victoria from 1 July 2010

From 1 July 2010 practitioners of the Nursing and Midwifery professions across Australia will have to meet the same requirements to be registered and their registration will be recognised in all States and Territories.

Egg allergy and Priorix® vaccine

An egg allergy is not a contraindication to Priorix® vaccine administration.

Primary Health Care Organisations - what does it mean to me?

The Prime Minister recently announced several changes to the health system. These changes include the development of a National Health and Hospitals Network (NHHN) comprised of Local Hospital networks (LHNs) and regional primary health care organisations (PHCOs).