Federal funding for Eyre Peninsula healthcare
A regional health alliance has been awarded $1.4 million under the fifth and final round of a federal grant program that had previously skipped South Australia.
The Northern Eyre Peninsula Health Alliance (NEPHA), consisting of Cleve, Cowell, Kimba, Wudinna, Elliston and Streaky Bay, has been given $1.4 million over four years by the Federal health department to improve healthcare accessibility in rural areas.
The $24.7 million Innovative Models of Care (IMOC) Program has helped 21 organisations around the country, with NEPHA the only South Australian group to receive a grant.
NEPHA will put the funding towards a centralised administrative model to support GP and Allied Health service delivery in the area, focusing on recruiting and retaining healthcare professionals.
District Council of Kimba Mayor Dean Johnson told InDaily the grant would allow the community to look at different models to find something that “actually works”.
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“These areas have a thin market, which is technical talk for a complete failure of medical services,” Johnson said.
“We’re just starting the process, but we’re really, really excited about getting our teeth into this and trying to develop some alternate models that might actually work in rural areas, which most models are not designed for whatsoever.”
Johnson said the area would look at upskilling nurses, taking pressure off of GPs. The funding will also be used to implement cultural awareness training to ensure First Nations people receive appropriate care.
Kimba Mayor Dean Johnson told InDaily the area lacked available specialists. Photo: Photo: Belinda Willis / InDaily
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“We’re trying to get more allied healthcare professionals to work out of our rural practices, so again it takes some pressure off the GPs who often feel like they’re the only resource in the area,” he said.
“If we can get some more professional services around them, we hope that they’ll feel more supported and choose to stay in these areas longer.”
Johnson said because private specialists were not as accessible in the area patients had to travel “hundreds of kilometres”.
“Our closest major centre is 150kms away in Whyalla, so that’s a 300km round trip if you can get in. Because a lot of them are booked out before you leave.
“The Eyre Peninsula was really one of the first regions to go through this, we certainly saw ourselves as a canary in the coal mine.
“We’ve been working for a number of years to try and find some solutions to this, so it’s really rewarding to finally get some funding that could see us work through these issues and come up with some solutions that are locally thought of and delivered.”
The IMOC grants were awarded over four years in five rounds, with Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler in February announcing the fourth round of recipients, none of which were from SA.
At that time, the Department of Health and Aged Care told InDaily that grants were awarded in a competitive process that considered geographic locations of trials.
