NOTICES › Medicare Locals to Primary Health Care Networks (Question No. 259)
(1) What has the Government budgeted for the tender process to transition from Medicare Locals to Primary Health Care Networks. (2) Have the funds for this process been absorbed from the existing budgets for Medicare Locals; if so, (a) what quantum of each Medicare Local budget has gone towards this tender process, and (b) what programs have been ceased because of this change. (3) Will the scope of the Primary Health Care Networks' role be different from Medicare Locals; if so, how. Mr Dutton: The answer to the honourable member's question is as follows: (1) The tender process will be run from within existing resources in the Department of Health. (2) No. (3) The role of Primary Health Networks (PHN) will be different from Medicare Locals in many ways. PHNs will: have more efficient corporate structures that reduce administrative cost to ensure funding goes to provide frontline services to benefit patients; create savings through economies of scale and greater purchasing power, have better planning capacity and increased authority to engage with Local Hospital Networks and jurisdictional governments; have greater local GP involvement to ensure optimal patient care with GP-led Clinical Councils having a direct say in the activities of PHNs; ensure local accountability and relevance, and a focus on patient-centred decision making through Community Advisory Committees; and be regional purchasers of health services (and providers only in exceptional circumstances) with the flexibility to stimulate innovative public and private health care solutions to improve frontline services.