Design and deliver a targeted training program for GPs, Nurses, Allied Health and Aged Care Professionals in coordinated provision of primary care using technology to elderly Australians in residential aged care settings to remove barriers for GPs to attend RACF residents, reducing bed vacancies and avoidable hospital admissions.

The Challenge

There is a chronic shortage of primary health care professions, including GPs, working in the residential aged care sector. This is contributing to aged care beds left vacant due to the lack of an admitting practitioner; residents lacking primary care support as GPs retire or exit service provision; residents being sent to hospital emergency departments for treatment, overcrowding already stretched services and causes delays in life saving care for critically ill people. New models of care using a mix of on-site and telehealth delivered care are emerging, and funding has been provided by government to roll-out telehealth solutions to RACF, but there remains a critical lack of support to train doctors, health care professionals and aged care workers in the effective and efficient use of this technology and almost no consideration of how to engage elderly residents to build confidence in new models of care.

Theory of Change

A tailored interdisplinary and integrated training program targeting GPs, Nurses, Allied Health and Aged Care Professionals in primary health care provision in RACF will clarify the roles and responsibilities of RACF in supporting the effective and efficient delivery of primary care in aged care settings, reducing existing barriers for GPs and increasing GP participation in aged care primary health service delivery.

Short-Intermediate Term

Training module designed in collaboration with GPs, Nurses, Allied Health, Aged Care Professionals and residents
Training Program delivered
Self-reported resident satisfaction with the quality of care