Uncertain future for AGPN and SBOs
AGPN board members are to become the founder members of a new Medicare Local National Body, but a question mark remains over the future role - if any - of the AGPN and GP division state-based organisations (SBOs).
A communiqué (link) from the AGPN board says health minister Nicola Roxon has made it clear that SBOs will not continue in their current form when the Medicare Local National Body is formed.
The Federal government will stop funding the SBOs after December 2012, but the AGPN says the new national Medicare Local National Body should have a strong state and territory presence.
“While the MLNB is expected to take on a state-based function, it is not expected that this will mirror the current roles of the SBOs,” it says.
Instead, the AGPN board says it will work with SBOs “to determine the relevant state functions and how best to deliver these.”
In its communiqué the AGPN board says its members will form the transitional governance team for the new Medicare Local National Body until more permanent members are appointed and a permanent board is set up.
However, this raises the question of who will represent the remaining GP divisions and SBOs during the transition to Medicare Locals.
AGPN will lose its funding from July 2012, but the board says no action has been made to wind up the AGPN as yet. It is conducting a survey of AGPN members to assess views of the future direction of the network.
