Kids and regions to receive integrated care boost

Paediatric, regional, rural and remote projects scooped the pool in the first allocation of funding from the Palaszczuk Government’s $35 million Integrated Care Innovation Fund (ICIF).

Minister for Health and Minister for Ambulance Services Cameron Dick said the ICIF provides financial support to innovative projects that deliver better integration of care, address fragmentation in services and provide high-value healthcare.

“It’s heartening to see more than $8.5 million awarded to projects in locations and specialties where integrated care was particularly essential,” Mr Dick said.

“These successful projects will deliver integrated and innovative models of care to vulnerable and underserviced populations across Queensland.”

Projects have been funded on the Darling Downs and Sunshine Coast, in Central and Central West Queensland, in the Torres and Cape, and through Children’s Health Queensland (CHQ).

“The successful projects also demonstrated a willingness to embrace and encourage the uptake of new technology and the benefits of integrating care and improving communication between health care sectors,” Mr Dick said.

CHQ’s proposed shared-care model for the management of children on stimulant medication for medically stable, uncomplicated Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), demonstrated all of these qualities.

“CHQ recommended that GPs and their own paediatricians manage these patients together to actively decrease their dependence on the hospital system,” Mr Dick said.

“This integrated model will share the care for these patients between CHQ, the Brisbane South Primary Health Network and Primary Health Care Clinics.

“A guided-practice model, Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO), will also be rolled out by CHQ to ensure their partners receive education on providing best-practice speciality care.”

Eight projects shared in the $8.53 million of funding in the first allocation from the ICIF.

Almost $26.5 million remains in the ICIF to fund integrated care projects prior to 30 June 2018, with a second round of funding currently scheduled to be offered in early November 2016.

Projects funded through the ICIF

1. ADHD - Actively Decreasing Hospital Dependence (Children’s Health Queensland; $1,130,342)
2. Children and young people in out-of-home care (OOHC): managing their health and developmental needs through integrated care (Children's Health Queensland; $743,762)
3. Child Health Integrated Care (CHIC): A paediatric shared care innovation for children with developmental and behavioural learning difficulties (Sunshine Coast HHS $1,023,204)
4. Model of Care for People with Diabetes in the Darling Down region (Darling Downs HHS; $1,688,283)
5. Regional Hepatology Partnership (Sunshine Coast HHS; $754,124)
6. Primary Oral Health Care Project (Torres and Cape HHS: $1,457,792)
7. Planning for the preliminary trial of the integrated health service model for the Remote Area Nurse led clinic (Central West HHS; $1,457,466)
8. Integrated Allied Health Services in Rural Communities (Central Queensland HHS; $278,500)

Additional information about each project is available at https://www.health.qld.gov.au/improvement/make-it-happen/integrated-care-innovation-fund.

ENDS

Media contact:         

Michelle Wellington      0437 323 834