Health – GenPro Chair Pushes Back on “Catastrophising” Around New PHO

Source: GenPro

GenPro Chair Angus Chambers is calling for a more balanced and constructive conversation around the establishment of the new primary health organisation (PHO), amid what he describes as widespread negativity and misinformation within the sector.

“There has been quite a lot of catastrophising around the impact of a new PHO,” Chambers said. “The response from parts of the sector has been negative, instead of focusing on the opportunity to deliver greater national consistency, coherence, and support for general practice.”

Recent criticism claimed the new PHO will be highly disruptive which will “distract and destabilise” patient care, lead to job losses among clinicians, and reduce patient access to services. Chambers says those claims are overstated and not supported by the evidence.

“The new PHO has undertaken detailed mapping of services and contracts across the system. The reality is that very little will change in the next 12 to 18 months,” he said.

“Many providers are already operating under contracts outside of the PHO Services Agreement that extend for one, two, or even three years. These arrangements are not being torn up. The current contracts already provide stability, and contrary to the misinformation there is no immediate threat to services.”

Dr Chambers emphasised that maintaining continuity of care is a core priority.

“We do not want to break anything on the way through—because that is not helpful to patients. The ideal scenario is that patients notice very little change, other than their general practice becoming more viable and more robust over time.”

He also expressed concern about fear mongering directed at general practices.

“There has been messaging encouraging practices to be fearful about what they are signing up for, rather than supporting them to undertake clear and informed due diligence. That is not helpful to the sector or to patients.”

Dr Chambers pointed out that the recent establishment of new PHOs, which will work alongside 30 other, already established, PHOs, is not unprecedented.
   
“We’ve seen two PHOs established in the past year. Change is not new to this sector, and it can be managed in a way that strengthens primary care.”

He concluded by urging stakeholders to shift the tone of the conversation.

“This is an opportunity to build a stronger, more sustainable general practice system. We need to move away from worst-case scenarios and focus on what will actually deliver better outcomes for patients.”