Ninety-two percent of general practices receive medicare grants to improve patient access and experience
SEMPHN supported general practices in south east Melbourne to apply for the Strengthening Medicare GP Grants Program.
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In April 2023, the Australian Government announced the Strengthening Medicare GP Grants Program to support general practices in expanding patient access and improving their services based on local need.
In line with SEMPHN’s pillars of Vibrant Primary Health Services and Innovation and System Reform, this Program helped general practices to apply for a one-off grant (of either $25,000, $35,000 or $50,000, based on practice size and accreditation status) to make investments in innovation, training, equipment, and minor capital works in one or more of the three streams below:
- enhancing digital health capability
- upgrading infection prevention and control arrangements
- maintaining or achieving accreditation against the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) Standards for General Practices.
Following this announcement, SEMPHN’s Provider Support, Communications and Engagement, Procurement and Contracts, and Finance teams jointly developed a comprehensive communications and engagement strategy (including a dedicated GP grants email address) and streamlined operational efficiencies (including application and finance processes) – even before applications opened.
Shannon George, General Manager Primary and Aged Care Service Innovation at SEMPHN, said;
“Through our Provider Support team, we know just how hard general practices have worked over the past few years despite funding and resource constraints. We also understand how time-poor they are. Our goal was to ensure practices within our catchment understood how this grant can support business objectives and efficiencies, and in turn patient experience and outcomes. Making the application process as easy as possible was paramount.”
Once applications opened on 26 April 2023, multiple communication and engagement channels were used to target and reach the 484 general practices in our catchment including; Electronic Direct Mail, phone calls, personalised emails, Basecamp online forum notifications, newsletter reminders, social media, dedicated agenda items at the Practice Managers and Practice Nurses online networking forum and face-to-face visits – both planned and spontaneous.
Within the first three weeks of outreach, 63.5% of general practices had applied for a grant. As applications slowed during the fourth week, our Provider Support team directly approached practices yet to apply.
“We didn’t want any practice to miss out on an opportunity to boost the quality and capacity of their services . Our Provider Support team have a great relationship with practices, so we knew that hearing from a familiar and trusted person would most likely encourage more applications”
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Joanna Yates, Project Lead at SEMPHN
The outcome
When applications closed on 15 June 2023, SEMPHN had engaged with all 484 general practices in south east Melbourne, and 445 general practices (92%) had applied and received the grants.
of practices applied by the start of June 2023
of practices applied by the close date
of practices were contacted about the grant program
Throughout the project, all practice engagement was monitored and recorded using SEMPHN’s Client Relationship Management (CRM) system, along with SEMPHN’s Contract Management System which was used to receive and process applications. This made follow up communications and processing of funds to successful applicants seamless.
“This truly was a collaborative effort across SEMPHN teams. We thought out our process and tailored our current systems and processes to deliver a customer-centric outcome. This meant eligible general practices in our catchment were able to receive the grant in a short timeframe, and also helped us to strengthen relationships with a smaller number of practices who previously had minimal to no engagement with SEMPHN.”
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Trisha Nicholls, Procurement and Contracts Manager at SEMPHN
By encouraging general practices to invest in enhancing their services, we are building a primary healthcare system that is adaptive, accessible and safe for people in south east Melbourne.
“Our Path to Impact is about focusing on building primary care capacity to deliver quality care which results in improved service quality and accessibility – especially for those who need it most. Ultimately, it’s about better health and wellbeing for individuals, families and communities”
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Marita Sealey, Executive Director of Commissioning and Capacity Building Services at SEMPHN
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