SSWAHS = SWSLHN + SLHN and the Medicare Locals - 14

Just to emphasise the problems we Southern Highlands health consumers may face in the near future if the Macarthur-Southern Highlands marriage takes place with two entrepreneurs jockying for the presidency!

Bitter split emerges in race towards Medicare Locals

17th Mar 2011

Byron Kaye all articles by this author

3 comments

GP networks vying to become Medicare Locals (MLs) have been urged to cooperate after a joint bid by three divisions to become Australia’s biggest primary care hub collapsed into a bitter split.

With the 4 April deadline for the first round of ML tenders looming, the Sydney-based General Practice Network Northside (GPNN) unexpectedly broke from neighbouring Northern Sydney General Practice Network (NSGPN) and Manly Warringah Division of General Practice (MWDGP) to prepare a solo bid.

In his division’s newsletter, due to be sent to members this week, NSGPN chair Dr Harry Nespolon suggested he had been “double crossed” and questioned whether GPs could “trust or support such an organisation”.

“It’s pretty hard to see how a GP in Palm Beach is going to feel warm and cuddly about [being serviced by a Medicare Local] which is basically the Hornsby division,” he told MO.

The remaining two networks would continue to work on their own joint bid, he added.

GPNN chair Dr Jennie Kendrick said governance, membership and function were the key issues that led to the decision to pursue the solo bid, but she hoped all parties would be able to work together regardless of the outcome.

“It’s a practical decision,” Dr Kendrick told MO.

“We don’t have any problems working with them.”

AGPN CEO David Butt urged cooperation among divisions bidding for MLs.

Tags: medicare locals, divisions, tender

Comments:

ed
17th Mar 2011
5:36pm
These networks only provide a cushy paid job to GPs who have no skills in looking after patients. Some of the GPs involved would not be able to treat a diabetic seizure or a serious complaint. They can all write care plans but not see anything wrong in a child that has difficulty reading and hearing. As one who told me at a clinical meeting, "I like my red wine and earn money via Medicare so that my children can go to a private school". He was...(sorry, I am a coward)

ondocfarm
17th Mar 2011
6:25pm
Oh..so power and glory cannot be shared.....? Well each should go it alone! Our area has seen three different divisions merge into one that has a ?? degree of usefulness, but keeps the combined egos of those involved ensconced and well paid (many are NOT GPs) even if the bulk of the GPs covered find it hard to define what benefit occurs.

MLs just a bigger mess and also of undefined usefulness?

Solidarity
17th Mar 2011
11:27pm
The whole concept is flawed; leave traditional GP structures alone and stop twiddling knobs to prop up a Federal government in meltdown. ML already smells like BER and insulation and every other scheme that has gone wrong. Toxicity rising from it already.