For many people, seeing a GP is not as simple as picking up the phone or booking an appointment online.
Concerns about cost, availability, and finding the right support can all stand in the way of getting care when it’s needed most.
That’s why Cairns Central Medical has spent the past year looking at new ways to make healthcare more accessible for local patients, while ensuring the practice can continue serving the community for years to come.
With guidance from Northern Queensland Primary Health Network’s (NQPHN’s) Primary Care Engagement team, practice owner Ali Moustafa said the team had embraced every opportunity to improve the practice and better support patients.
“We recognised there were a range of tools and programs available that could help us build a more sustainable practice, so we took a whole-of-practice approach,” he said.
One initiative is the Australian Government’s Bulk Billing Incentive Program.
“For many people, affordability can be a barrier to accessing healthcare,” Ali said.
“Joining the Bulk Billing Incentive Program has allowed us to continue supporting patients who need affordable access to a GP, while also maintaining a sustainable business model.”
The practice has also formed a new partnership with neighbouring TerryWhite Chemmart Cairns Central, plus they are working on initiatives to increase workforce capacity.
“The support from NQPHN has helped us identify opportunities for improvement, including our systems,” Ali said.
“The combined impact has been significant and has positioned us well for a sustainable future.”
Practice Manager Rachel Paed-Lewis said the practice had also successfully implemented Primary Sense.
Primary Sense is a population health intelligence tool that supports proactive patient care, early intervention, and informed clinical decision-making.
“Primary Sense along with our other data extraction tools gives us greater insight into the health needs of our patient population and helps us identify people who may benefit from additional care or follow-up sooner,” Rachel said.
“It’s enabling us to be more proactive in how we support our patients and plan services – and that’s a really good thing.”
Further committing to continuous improvement, the practice has joined the PHASES program (Preventing Heart Attacks and Stroke Events through Surveillance), an initiative that helps general practices use patient data to identify people at risk of cardiovascular disease earlier and support proactive care.
“We want to create a practice that continues to evolve and improve,” Rachel said.
Joining the Bulk Billing Incentive Program has allowed us to continue supporting patients who need affordable access to a GP, while also maintaining a sustainable business model.
More transformation on the horizon
The year-long transformation is also laying the foundations for the practice’s next chapter – the development of the Cairns Central Health Hub, an integrated healthcare model designed to bring more services together in one location.
Cairns Central Medical is currently undergoing a major renovation and expansion, where the Hub will build on the existing partnership between Cairns Central Medical and TerryWhite Chemmart Cairns Central, with pathology services also set to join the precinct.
The practice is also working to introduce a broader range of allied health and specialist services, creating stronger connections between GPs, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals.
Ali said the vision was about making healthcare simpler and more connected for patients.
“A patient shouldn’t have to navigate multiple disconnected services across Cairns when those healthcare professionals could be working together around them,” he said.
“We are bringing together general practice, pharmacy, and pathology, and our next phase is to integrate allied health and visiting specialist services so we can create genuine multidisciplinary care.
“For someone living with a chronic condition such as diabetes, that could mean seeing their GP, having their pathology collected, accessing a diabetes educator, dietitian, podiatrist, or exercise physiologist, and speaking with their pharmacist – all within the same healthcare hub.”
The Bulk Billing Incentive Program (BBIP), Primary Sense, PHASES, and other workforce initiatives are supported by NQPHN through the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.