On Thursday, 14 December 2017 the Northern Rivers General Practice Network is holding an evening meeting to discuss opportunities and potential new services for North Coast doctors. The meeting will start at 7 p.m. immediately following the NRGPN Annual General Meeting and will last for one hour.
Our presenters will each have 10 minutes to briefly outline their projects and there will be time at the end of the meeting for follow up questions and general discussion.
John Langill and Dr Chris Jambor from the North Coast GP Training kick off the evening with a talk about educational opportunities for North Coast doctors. It is envisaged that by leveraging NRGPN resources we will be able to get local talks and presentations to a wider audience than currently occurs.
Next up is Dr Louise Imlay-Gillespie, haematologist at the Northern NSW Local Health District, to discuss the Facebook Group, Northern Rivers Doctors (#NoRDoc). This internet resource is based on the popular GPs Down Under (#GPDU), an Australian wide group that discusses issues of concern to GPs. Unlike #GPDU, #NoRDoc will focus on North Coast health issues. It will be open to all medical practitioners living or practising in the area and discuss local problems with a view to finding possible solutions.
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners’ 5th Edition Standards for General Practice requires GPs to inform patients about out-of-pocket costs for their services and for the services to which they refer patients (Criterion C1.5A and C1.5B). It suggests practices could provide a contact list of local service providers where patients could find out about costs and select a service provider of their choice.
This seems a clumsy solution in the days of internet banking, shopping, booking and revue. Our third speaker, local GP Dr Arthur Proudfoot, will talk about the web based resource he is developing to provide this sort of information to medical practices. The website will not confine itself to cost issues but also allow for the dissemination of information about waiting times and specialists’ subspecialty interests. The latter will be of particular value to general practitioners new to the North Coast. It is hoped that services like this around the country will reduce the delays and waste of patients' time that currently occur.
The meeting will be held at the St Vincent’s Hospital Education Centre and off street parking is available from 6 p.m. in the Staff Car Park on Dalley Street at the eastern end of the SVH grounds.
All health practitioners and ancillary staff interested in finding out more about, or being involved in, furthering these topics are invited to attend.
Register by emailing
