Mainland doctors are apparently keen to take on work in the island state’s experimental new team.
Tasmania now has its first five “rapid response” GPs ready and awaiting deployment, in the latest iteration of a state-funded GP model.
The GP NOW team, which will eventually consist of 10 salaried doctors, will be deployed at short notice to areas where a solo GP is retiring or an entire clinic is closing due to market failure.
At one point in time, it was said that the GPs would be bulk billing patients; more recent documents make no mention of Medicare and instead say the program is state-funded and an extension of the Tasmanian Department of Health covid care service Care@home.
Care@home medical director, GP Dr Meg Creely, said the majority of applicants for the GP NOW jobs had come from interstate doctors looking to relocate to Tasmania.
“We’ll be able to deploy our doctors to support their GP colleagues where they’ve experienced unexpected challenges delivering medical care to their communities,” Dr Creely said.
“The support will be flexible and tailored to individual community needs, and help patients access medical care as we look towards a longer term, sustainable solution.”
When asked how long the GPs were expected to remain in a community, Dr Creely said each assignment would be taken on a case-by-case basis with the goal of a “long term sustainable solution for that particular area”.
Depending on the circumstances, members of the GP NOW team could either be physically sent to a location or provide support via telehealth.
During periods where they aren’t deployed, the 10 GPs will do virtual care via Care@home.
“That’s partly the reason why they’re coming in under Care@home,” Dr Creely said.
“It’ll enable our GPs to be able to work both in the virtual care space that we were already deliver with Care@home, but also to be deployed where they’re needed at that time.”
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Tasmania Department of Health home and community care program director Laura Pyszkowski said the Care@home program would also be expanding its scope over the coming months.
“Part of our Care@home expansion is around reducing demand for our emergency departments,” she said.
“We’re focusing on high service users … who could be provided with primary care services through either acute illness pathways for care at home, our chronic disease management pathways and other innovative programs that we can put in place in collaboration with primary care.”
The final five members of the GP NOW team will be recruited and put to work sometime in the next financial year.
