CHIC Initiative

CHIC Initiative

Overview
The Wide Bay Fraser Coast Partnership Council was established in November 2007 as a partnership between private, public and non-government sectors with the aim to minimise duplication, improve integration and service coordination and, potentially, increase the capacity of the health system to improve the health of residents within the region.

The Partnership Council’s key focus areas are: chronic and complex care; integrated health promotion and illness prevention; early childhood health; community mental health; and drug and alcohol services.

Partnership Council Members include: Blue Care, Galangoor Duwalami ATSI Corporation Primary Health Care Service, GP Links Wide Bay (Division of General Practice), Indigenous Wellbeing Centre ATSI Corporation, OzCare and Sunshine Coast Wide Bay Health Service District (Queensland Health).

Current priorities include:
  • Telehealth Project - Through the provision of facilities in Gayndah and Bundaberg to provide rural communities with enhanced access to health services, provide better education, and training and support opportunities for local health care providers, improve collaboration and communication between health care providers, and reduce the amount of travel undertaken by health professionals in providing outreach services;
  • Community Outreach Project - Establish an outreach service to minimise the harm (including mental illness, intentional self-harm, suicide and chronic disease) caused and/or affected by drug and alcohol misuse;
  • Avoidable Hospital Admissions Project - Facilitate improvement in coordinated care of patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Cardiac Disease who are likely to be readmitted to hospital during the course of their illness; Click here for further information about Patient Care Coordination
  • GP Diabetes Services Improvement Project - Improve health outcomes for patients with diabetes by prototyping best practice, sustainable, practice-based diabetes clinics that will serve as, and be promoted as, a model for all general practices within the region;
  • Integrated Care Project - Provide community outreach for chronic disease management and care coordination to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community of Fraser Coast Region by improving access to Maternal and Child Health services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
  • General Practice Hospital Liaison Project - to establish and sustain a close collaborative relationship between the general practice community and the acute sector in the Wide Bay Fraser Coast region that will be delivered through improved communication and collaboration between the healthcare sectors. These improvements will result in greater transparency, more effective channels of communication and more efficient information flows between the various healthcare components that make up the patient pathway. Greater access to all the elements of primary health care will flow from these improvements.
  • Wide Bay Mobile Referral and Information Service for Men’s Health - Provide an improved access to primary health care for men aged 18+ across the region through the activation of the Wide Bay Men’s Health Group Trailer which will provide a multi-disciplinary approach to support and referral.
Improving Partnering
WBFC PC is undertaking 2 (two) activities that will improve awareness through internal and external communication programs as well as advancing innovation in patient-aware solutions that will better position our stakeholders to meet the changing demands of the evolving healthcare landscape.
  • Health Needs Assessment Activity – the development of an information resource that all health agencies can access that provides evidence about the health status of the Wide Bay Fraser Coast region. The resource will be beneficial in supporting funding proposals, targeted service planning, identifying health priorities and succession planning, resource allocation and will provide an opportunity for cross-sectoral partnering. This resource is an active response to agencies expressed need of improving data and the difficulties in accessing relevant data.
  • Marketing and Communications Activity – to improve awareness of the WBFC PC, being effective in improving the integration and coordination of primary and community health service delivery and planning across the region, through communication tools - ensuring the WBFC PC message is consistent and clearly understood.
Newsletter
This is currently under development.

Enquiries:
Primary Care Integration Manager: Cyleece Feher
Mob: 0447 164 405
Email: cfeher@gplinks.org.au

Marketing and Communications Consultant: Estelle Pretorius
Mob: 0408 756 673
Email: estellepretorius@bigpond.com