Tender opens for rural primary health services

Primary Health Tasmania has opened a tender for the delivery of services to improve the health of people
living with chronic conditions in rural areas.

The tender will close on 30 September and service delivery will start in January 2017.

Primary Health Tasmania general manager Susan Powell said applicants will need to identify priority chronic
conditions to be addressed in certain rural areas based on available evidence, and explain how their service
model will lead to better health.

“They will also need to demonstrate how they will address some key issues raised by rural communities
consulted by Primary Health Tasmania,” she said.

“Three key things we kept hearing were that people in rural communities wanted care to be more coordinated,
more person-centred, and they wanted to see a team approach to the delivery of care which includes better
communication between health professionals.

“Providers tendering to deliver rural primary health services will need to show how these approaches are built
into their model.”

Ms Powell said it was important to be mindful of the challenges experienced by people in rural areas that can
contribute to poorer health outcomes.

“Some of the reasons include limited access to some services and to specialist services located outside the
community when they are needed,” she said.

“We want to keep people as healthy as possible within their local communities, with support from locally
delivered primary health care services.”

A total of 21 Tasmanian local government areas are eligible for rural primary health services under this tender
on the basis of socioeconomic disadvantage, accessibility and remoteness.

More information about rural primary health services commissioning and feedback from consultation sessions
is available on the Primary Health Tasmania website at www.primaryhealthtas.com.au/commissioning/ruralprimary-health-services-commissioning.

Tender details are available by registering on Primary Health

Tasmania’s eTender portal at www.tenderlink.com/primaryhealthtas

Primary Health Tasmania is a non-government, not-for-profit organisation working to connect care and keep
Tasmanians well and out of hospital. It was established on 1 July 2015 under the Australian Government’s
Primary Health Networks Program to support and enable a coordinated, primary care-focused health system.
Jenny Denholm Manager – Communications and Marketing