General practices operated by a hospital and health service
A hospital and health service (HHS) may seek to operate a private general practice through which salaried medical officers and rural generalists can conduct private medical practice for their private patients to ensure local communities continue to have access to planned and preventative primary health care.
HHS involvement in private general practice usually occurs when a GP or a medical practitioner with private practice leaves a community without selling or transferring their practice to another independent private practice.
Succession risk or transition should be considered as part of health service planning to avoid potential gaps when services have unexpectedly and suddenly ceased.
Considerations for operating a general practice
A HHS must take care to ensure any new private practice arrangements by hospital doctors and rural generalists do not compete with existing general practices or adversely affect their viability.
General practice is a very different service model to acute hospital care, with a strong emphasis on maintaining wellness, planning care over the life of a patient and keeping patients out of acute hospitals.
The general practice business model is largely fee for service, rather than being block funded like many rural hospitals. They require clinicians and practice staff to have a sound knowledge of Medicare and general practice accreditation standards, and use systems and processes that optimise care planning, patient flow and referral.
Queensland Health has an established private practice framework that can be applied in a HHS-operated private general practice model. Read our Better Practice Guide to Operating a Private General Practice (PDF 797 kB) to learn more about how a HHS can start, operate and govern a private general practice and how this fits with an integrated model of care.
Practice toolbox
Our General Practice Series of information sheets has been tailored to assist HHSs to better understand and deliver general practice services, having regard to Queensland Health policies and requirements.
- The general practice succession checklist (DOCX 31 kB) describes the actions that need to be considered when resuming general practice operations prior to and following the closure of an independent private practice.
- Estimating medical workforce needs (PDF 510 kB), estimating practice earnings (PDF 513 kB) and our earnings and budget calculator (XLSX 64 kB) can help health services develop their general practice plans for approval.
- General information relating to accrediting a practice (PDF 424 kB) to the RACGP Standards for General Practice and clinical governance essentials (PDF 881 kB).
- Help to develop a business plan (PDF 472 kB) and risk, emergency and business continuity plans (PDF 529 kB) to support practice operations and meet accreditation standards.
- Medicare billing guides and information on practice incentives (PDF 3937 kB) to improve the viability and performance of the practice.