Palliative care pilot project

The Neerim South Medical Clinic is one of six general practices in Gippsland to pilot a palliative care toolkit to enhance their services.
Developed by Gippsland, Murray and Western Victoria primary health networks the toolkit aims to increase capacity and responsiveness of services to meet local needs.
Gippsland PHN chief executive officer Amanda Proposch said most people preferred to be cared for and die at home and the initiative aimed to help make that possible.
She said feedback from consumers, health professionals and the Gippsland Palliative Care Consortium included the need to upskill the primary care workforce in palliative care.
The six practices that showed an interest in participating in the pilot that includes education and training and over the next few months at least one general practitioner, a practice nurse and an administrator will undertake a package of training.
A needs assessment will be completed by GPHN before starting programs or commissioning services.
A governance group will oversee the pilot project that will be evaluated on completion.