100 days to become a Medicare Local

"It will take 100 days for Divisions of General Practice to transform into “high performing” Medicare Locals, according to business experts who are offering their help with the transition.

The consultancy firm Ernst and Young has come up with a “transition framework” to help individual organisations competing to become part of the government’s $417 million plan for Medicare Locals.

And it will only take 100 days for the Divisions of General Practice to become Medicare Locals, according to their advert on the AGPN website.

The company may be too late in helping organisations submit their bids for the first round of 15 Medicare Locals, due to start in June.

But there is still time for the second round due to start next year, with the deadline on July 19.

And Ernst and Young which says it has done work for the UK’s Department of Health, insists the transition can be covered over four phases.

The phases range from developing a bid and a 100 day plan to assessing the health needs of the population, creating a workforce and finally “executing” the plan.

“You have a unique opportunity to transform the delivery of primary healthcare as part of the overall reform program and transition to a system of high performing Medicare Local organisations that are capable of realising the benefits envisaged,” the company says."

It would seem to Socrates that even Blind Freddy can see where a large chunk of the Federal Government's funding will go if the so-called "not-for-profit" corporate organisations such as the Macarthur-Southern Highlands Divisions consortium gets the nod for setting up a Medicare Local up in Macarthur.