PCD Strategy Evaluation 2007.pdf - NT Health Digital Library ...

General Practice programsGeneral practices are present in urban, rural and remote Northern Territory. There are a widerange of general practice organisations in the NT and Australia-wide who represent differentpreferred interests. Many of these organisations have developed chronic disease programs andguidelines.In most states, there is a state based organisation for Divisions of General Practices, and a RuralWorkforce Agency. In the NT, these two organisations – the NT Remote Health WorkforceAgency and General Practice Divisions NT – merged in 2004 to form the General Practice andPrimary Health Care NT (GPPHCNT). It is the new peak body representing and providingprofessional support for general practitioners working in private practice and non-governmentorganisations.In 2005, the GPPHCNT began coordinating the National Primary Care Collaboratives program inthe NT, of which two major themes are diabetes and heart disease. Over the three years of thisprogram, lead personnel in participating practices and non-government services have been linkedup with other participating practitioners across Australia, and they have been working onimproving an aspect of their practice within these specific theme areas. The aim is to implementsystems to improve care within practices using the “Plan, Do, Study, Act” cycle (64) . The NPCC‟shave been instrumental in bringing about a change in general practice to implement evidencebasedguidelines, care planning and recall systems supported by enhanced use of EPC Medicareitems. In the Northern Territory overall 220 people have participated in the NPCC program with22 GP‟s involved in the program, which is estimated to be approximately 10 per cent of GP‟s inthe NT.TEDGP conducts a number of programs concerned with chronic disease management, which theysee as a core role in supporting general practices/GPs to provide optimal care and to contributeto the achievement of the best possible health outcomes for patients with diabetes (65) . Amongother roles the TEDGP: Identifies and engages organisations, service providers and consumer/carer groups tofacilitate patient access to optimal diabetes care in the Top End Secures consumer opinion and direction through co-ordination with consumer referencegroup to support chronic disease management strategiesChapter 3: Progress Against PCDS Objectives – Evaluation of the NT Preventable Chronic Disease Strategy 2007 54