Primary Care Partnerships

Health Workforce Queensland (HWQ) is working in collaboration with Primary Health Networks (PHNs) and other key stakeholders to identify communities with high workforce challenges and develop solutions to address these critical workforce situations. This enables our active participation in being part of solutions to access, quality and sustainability of the remote and rural workforce. Collaboration and partnerships to evidence this include:

• Member of State-wide Advisory Network for CheckUP to determine outreach services in Queensland.

• Member of the Future Proofing our Rural Workforce Collaborative (FORCe) hosted by the Office of Rural and Remote Health within Queensland Health.

• Member of the Health Industry Skills Advisor Industry Reference Group to build the capacity of the health workforce and to effectively plan and identify skilling solutions.

• Partnership with Queensland Rural Medical Services within Queensland Health on the National Rural Generalist Post Fellowship Support Framework for rural GPs and rural generalists in public and private settings.

• Member of the Virtual Integrated Practice (VIP) collaboration, supporting rural practices to partner with virtual GPs to increase access to services.

• Member of the GP Workforce Planning and Prioritisation (GP WPP) Steering Committee.

• Member of a Statewide Practice Support Collaborative to find ways to identify and support practices that are declining in thin markets.

• Member of RVTS Targeted Campaign Focus Group. Assisted with feedback and review of the program to improve outcomes, leading to placement and support of GPs in rural and remote areas, addressing significant issues and progressing to Fellowship.

• Partner organisation to the Access for Every Child Coalition released by the Parenthood Alliance to advocate for all rural and remote children receiving equitable access to early education, thereby facilitating health professionals’ ability to participate in the workforce.

• Membership of the Statewide implementation Network of the Rural Immersion Placement Program - Allied Health (RIPPAH), where we partner with Queensland Health and University Departments of Rural Health (UDRHs) to support multi-sectoral extended allied health student rural placements.

Ongoing engagement with all rural PHNs continues to validate the findings of the HWNA and to discuss opportunities to work together to resolve workforce issues in their regions. Some examples of PHN and other stakeholder engagement include:

WQPHN Region

• Facilitation and Secretariat for the South West Allied Health Workforce Collaborative and North West Allied Health Workforce Collaborative. The two collaboratives include membership from education providers, service delivery providers and agencies such as the Office of the Chief Allied Health Officer.

• Member of South West Primary Health Care Alliance Leadership Group and Implementation Team to provide increasingly integrated and coordinated health services through clinically-led services within a "best for patient, best for system" framework.

• Healthy Outback Communities (HOC) - HWQ is a member of the HOC Alliance Leadership Team. The HOC initiative is a new, collaborative model of health and social care that aims to improve health access, equity, and outcomes in the very remote Western Queensland shires of Boulia, Diamantina and Barcoo.

Country to Coast PHN Region

• Established the Gladstone Health Workforce Collaborative (previously known as the Gladstone Health Education Pathways Workging Group) to bring together universities, health services, local council and community organisations to address barriers to student placements in the region. HWQ provides secretariat, project support and evaluation services for the initiatives of the working group.

• Providing secretariat support to Gladstone Health Precinct Working Group.

• Regular monthly meetings to discuss hot spots/ priority practice locations and joint approach to address critical issues.

• Attended the CQ Health Workforce Workshop - Registered Nurse Workforce Shortages in RACF to better understand the needs of the region and to offer solutions.

DDWMPHN Region

• Ongoing participation in the DDWMPHN GP Workforce Working Group working towards a joint theory of change to tackle GP health workforce issues in the region, supported by the Workforce Prioritisation and Planning agenda.

• DDWMPHN, CheckUP and HWQ Joint Planning Group Member – identifying workforce gaps and opportunities for joint approach and collaboration.

NQPHN Region

• Provided key information (written and verbal) to workforce planning in the region as members of the North Queensland Health Workforce Alliance and the Focus Groups.

• Member and facilitator of the Tablelands Primary Health Care Alliance overseeing the implementation of the place-based workforce and service planning, focused on primary care.

• Ongoing collaboration with NQPHN on the Rural Health Workforce Enhancement Project working collaboratively to address specific critical workforce needs in identified locations/ areas of need. Comprehensive digital marketing campaign continued to increase interest in NQPHN Region’s rural vacancies.

• Collaboration on the Maternal & Child Health Uplift Program (MCHUP) to address the workforce skills gap to focus on a child in its first 1000 days of life.

• Participated in the Co-Design Workshop - Rural Team Based Care Project - Health Care Group- NQPHN/APNA Initiative in Bowen.

• Partnering with NQPHN to establish a HWQ Health Workforce Connector position in the Tablelands region of Atherton, Ravenshoe and Mareeba to create structured pathways into primary care employment for the multi-disciplinary cohort of GROW Rural students, facilitate recruitment and support activities for new recruits into primary care in the region and to raise awareness of health careers amongst local high school students.

• Member of the NQ Thin Market Working Group established by NQPHN to support the submission of a longer-term plan to the Commonwealth for a sustainable Primary Care model for the townships of Cardwell and Mission Beach and their surrounding regions.

• Collaboration with NQPHN to deliver Going Rural bursary for allied health and nursing students to provide for travel and accommodation when on university placements.