Consumer Information

| What are Primary Care Partnerships (PCPs)? | Why were Primary Care Partnerships established? | Who is involved in Primary Care Partnerships? | What is the structure of the Inner East Primary Care Partnership? | What is the vision for Inner East Primary Care Partnership for 2004/06? | How Does The Inner East Primary Care Partnership accomplish its vision? | What does the Inner East Primary Care Partnership do? | How can I be involved?

Consumer Information about Primary Care Partnerships

What are Primary Care Partnerships (PCPs)?

Primary Care Partnerships (PCPs) are voluntary alliances of health and community services from a distinct catchment area. The Inner East Primary Care partnership covers the municipalities of Boroondara, Manningham, Monash and Whitehorse.

Why were Primary Care Partnerships established?

They were established across Victoria in 2000 to improve the overall health and wellbeing of Victorians by:

Improving the experience and outcomes for people who use primary care services.

Reducing the preventable use of hospital, medical and residential services through a greater emphasis on health promotion programs and by responding to the early signs of disease and/or people's need for support.

Who is involved in Primary Care Partnerships?

Over 800 services have come together in 30 Primary Care Partnerships across all parts of Victoria to progress this work. The types of services involved are Community Health, Local Councils, Divisions of General Practice, parts of Metropolitan Health Services (Hospitals), and a range of other Health and Community organisations such as the Royal District Nursing Service, the Migrant Information Centre, Women’s Health and many other small and region wide services.

What is the structure of the Inner East Primary Care Partnership?

The IE PCP has a total of 60 organisations as General members and a Management Committee of 13 organisations. The Management Committee meets on a monthly basis to discuss progress of the work and to plan for solutions to identified problems. The Memorandum of Understanding sets out the agreed way of operating for the partnership. Each year a plan is developed that outlines what the partnership aims to achieve.

To find out more please click here to view our Membership Page

What is the vision for Inner East Primary Care Partnership for 2004/06?

The Vision for Primary Care Partnerships for 2004/06 is:

To develop an Integrated Health care system based on partnerships

To ensure that there is widespread consumer, carer and community participation in service design, implementation and evaluation.

To encourage people with chronic diseases to be active partners in their health care.

To focus the health system around Health promotion, prevention and early intervention.

To coordinate health promotion effort across the catchment that is linked to National and State wide priorities.

To encourage and deliver efficient and effective referral and care coordination across all health and community services.

How Does The Inner East Primary Care Partnership accomplish its vision?

PCPs have small staff teams who work closely with member agencies in the achievement of the vision. Considerable goodwill is required from amongst the local agencies. It includes the recognition that no one agency can provide for the wide and varying needs of consumers and that large levels of cooperation and coordination is required to ensure that consumers receive the right service at the right time. The quote below provides a useful insight into the importance of working together and the important role that consumers play in the development of a more effective and efficient health system.

“People’s needs do not fit neatly within one agency’s responsibility. Partnerships, however, are a potentially powerful way of addressing issues that single agencies cannot resolve by themselves. Those who plan and provide services need to work along side the people who use them, to put together new and better solutions to difficult problems”

Hence, Primary Care Partnerships work very much behind the scenes in drawing agencies together to work on challenges and identified priority areas.

What does the Inner East Primary Care Partnership do?

The work of the Inner East Primary Care Partnership for 2004/06 is focused on:

Health promotion

A catchment plan to help coordinate all health promotion work

Healthy Ageing and Falls prevention activities

Healthy weight with a focus on primary school aged children

Mental Health with a focus on depression and social connectedness

Service Coordination

The implementation of an agreement (across the Eastern Region) about how all agencies should refer and work with consumers who have chronic and/or complex illnesses.

An electronic referral system that enables improved communication between agencies and improved efficiencies enabling consumers improved access to services.

Other activities

Improved service planning and consumer needs analysis that will provide a coordinated approach to data collection to be shared amongst agencies.

The begin discussions with the four Metropolitan Health Services (Hospitals) that provide services to the four municipalities of the Inner East PCP.

How can I be involved?

Consumers have been involved in a number of projects that the PCP has led over the past three years. An example has been providing advice and support to the Healthy ageing/falls prevention reference group and another has been providing views on depression to the mental health project. Consumers are also very involved with local agencies in providing support and advice to those agencies. Over the past couple of years the PCP has provided training to consumers to participate in projects as consumer representatives and to provide their expertise and experience of the health system.

If you have an interest in being a consumer representative for the PCP or with a local agency contact the Manager of the PCP on 9285 4890.