Capital Health Network

This year has been one of significant change, progress and achievement for Capital Health Network (CHN). 

As the ACT’s Primary Health Network, we continued to work proactively with government departments and agencies, health professionals and community organisations to enhance access to primary health care services in Canberra. Our Needs Assessment, General Practice Advisory Council, Community Advisory Council and ACT Clinical Council continued to inform our work focused on improving the reach and impact of much-needed local services within our priority areas. 

This year we allocated over $31 million to 62 commissioned service providers (for 91 contracts) in 2023/24 to meet our community needs. Compared to the previous year, this is an increase of over $7.5 million with an additional 17 commissioned services providers. 

Our commitment to strong corporate governance was unwavering. End of 2023, we farewelled Dr Mel Deery, who after 6 years of Board guidance, from the general practice perspective, ended her elected term on the Board. We welcomed 3 new Directors to our Board: Dr Jessica Tidemann (General Practice Director), Dr Vik Fraser (Consumer Director) and Rachel Fishlock (Board Director). You can read about their experience and interests on our CHN Board webpage.  

From the CEO – Stacy Leavens

One of CHN’s goals, as ACT’s Primary Health Network, is to improve health outcomes for Canberrans. This year, with this goal in mind, we delivered four innovative trials to determine new models to improve health outcomes:
 

• ACT Primary Care Pilot - To support general practices to help patients with complex health care needs, CHN has collaborated with ACT Health and Canberra Health Services to roll out the federally-funded ACT Primary Care Pilot. The pilot is testing an innovative model to reduce demand on public Emergency Departments, by strengthening integration between ACT general practices and the public health system for people who either attend hospital frequently or are at risk of attending in the near future. GPs and Nurse Practitioners from the 15 participating general practices have worked closely with Canberra Health Services’ Liaison and Navigation Service to develop a comprehensive care plan to assist 149 patients in the pilot to stay well in the community. Nous will evaluate the trial. 

• Family Safey Pilot – We know that a GP is likely to see up to 5 women per week who have experienced some form of intimate partner abuse in the last 12 months. So CHN is running a new Family Safey Pilot Program in the ACT where primary health care professionals will receive free, tailored, ACT-specific training to recognise and respond to early signs of family, domestic, sexual violence and child sexual abuse. We have commissioned the Domestic Violence Crisis Service (DVCS) and the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre (CRCC) to deliver the pilot over the next 2 years. Link Workers, embedded within DVCS and CRCC, will facilitate coordination of referrals from general practices to relevant support services and enhance service navigation for victim-survivors.   
• Social Workers in General Practice – CHN’s Needs Assessment highlighted social determinants of health as a major barrier to accessing health care in the ACT, particularly for those with complex social and health needs. As a first in Australia, CHN funded 4 general practices in the ACT to participate in the Social Workers in General Practice Pilot, with Social Workers as an integrated part of their general practice team. Over 650 patients were seen by a Social Worker who addressed barriers to health care access by coordinating additional help from social, welfare or community support. Early results from the trial reveal that the inclusion of Social Workers in general practice has had a positive impact in patient support, practice team capacity and education. University of Canberra is conducting an evaluation of the trial.
• ACT Breathlessness Intervention Service – Many people with lung and heart conditions live with breathlessness every day, which can stop them from doing simple day-to-day activities. Chronic breathlessness is also a frequent reason for Emergency Department visits and hospital admissions. To address this, CHN’s ACT Breathlessness Intervention Service (ABIS) trial has involved the Southside Physio Mobile team visiting clients in their home to provide non-pharmacological interventions. All patients completing ABIS achieved improvement on at least one outcome measure e.g. severity of breathlessness, performance of nominated activity of daily living. Also, 21% of patients who have received at least one visit so far said they avoided calling an ambulance on 33 occasions, when they normally would, by using ABIS techniques themselves. The ABIS trial will be evaluated by the University of Technology Sydney.