The challenge at hand

People need effective and timely health care throughout the day and night. Yet despite the growing need, the primary health care system continues to predominantly operate during traditional business hours, which leaves many patients unable to access care when they need it.

Several issues continue to affect the delivery of primary care in the after hours period across the country. These include:

• Workforce challenges: Recruiting and retaining healthcare workers for after-hours shifts can be difficult.
• Access to care: Individuals with non-traditional work schedules may struggle to access care during regular hours.
• Service availability: The availability and accessibility of after hours services can vary widely.
• Communication and awareness: Many people are unaware of the available after hours services.

The Australian Government provides specific funding to empower Primary Health Networks to support, coordinate and plan after hours health services that can be tailored to address their local communities’ specific, diverse needs through activity plans and commissioning.

Primary Health Networks (PHNs) are positioned to have a significant influence on the after hours primary care landscape, with the Australian Government funding PHNs to understand and respond to their specific community needs. Brisbane North PHN (the PHN) required support to understand their region’s needs so they could better address the communities' specific needs in the after hours period, with a focus on keeping people out of the emergency department.

How we helped

Impact Co. undertook extensive quantitative and qualitative analysis over a 12-month period, including:

Composite index score analysis: This quantified the relative need, unmet demand, and service availability for after hours primary health care services across the region using various datasets for the Brisbane North region.

Consultations and focus groups: We facilitated consultations and focus groups with service providers and community members from priority populations to validate the findings and gather their insights and perspectives on their needs and potential solutions.

The impact

We provided a detailed after hours needs assessment and report, including strategic recommendations to help the PHN address the needs and inform future commissioning efforts. The PHN has begun progressing with the strategic recommendations provided by Impact Co. to support and commission new and existing initiatives and partnerships.