Eighteen health services from Northern Victoria and Southern NSW, including nine from our region, have joined to provide home care and stay competitive with large companies.
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Goulburn Valley Health has lead the way to develop Community Interlink, a consortium to provide packages to elderly people, delivered by staff working in local hospitals and services.
GVH community care director Gordon Ross said the move was prompted out of home care reforms.
“The reforms opened up the market so that people could go to anyone and purchase services, which gives people choice and power,” he said.
“But we saw what would happen was that national, statewide and even international companies would take control – public health services aren’t great at being in the open market.
“At Goulburn Valley Health we had about 235 community aged care packages as they were called – we were quite large – but other services had smaller numbers, and we realised they would all go out of business, and probably GVH as well.
“Even though 235 seems a lot, it’s not when you compare to international companies and the big church groups.
“We decided to join together and the different health services all transferred their packages to GVH and we formed, with help from a consultant, a governance group representative of those health services.”
Community Interlink has been operational for a year, supporting about 300 clients directly, with Beechworth, Indigo North, Tallangatta, Yarrawonga, and Benalla health services among members.
They can offer respite, mobility assistance, transport, personal assistance and a range of services eligible across the four levels of home care packages.
Albury Wodonga Health chief executive Leigh McJames was at the today in Wodonga yesterday and said the consortium was an “outstanding initiative in the new competitive environment.”
Mr Ross said he also wanted to make the process of accessing packages easier, with a lot of confusion among the general community about the reforms.
“We’re trying to simplify things; you don’t have to go to the My Aged Care website if that’s too hard for you, talk to us and we’ll lead you through the process,” he said.
“There’s lots of consortiums and partnerships out there, so there are definitely models across health and community services, but as far as the home care space I’m not aware of anything like this.
“Local providers are those that can offer the highest level of support, having local staff, with local knowledge and networks.”
