After Hours

SEMPHN’s After Hours (AH) commissioning activities are guided by the Commonwealth Government’s AH objectives, which are to:

• increase the efficiency and effectiveness of AH primary care for patients, particularly those with limited access to health services
• improve access to AH primary care through effective planning, co-ordination and support for population-based after-hours primary care 
• improve the availability of AH general practice services through working collaboratively with general practitioners.

Increasing services in the After Hours

Why is this service needed?

SEMPHN sought proposals from accredited general practices across the SEMPHN catchment to increase and sustain effective and accessible face-to-face primary care (general practice and registered nursing services) for over a year in the after-hours period by:

• Extending their existing opening hours in the after hours period weekdays and weekends, and/or
• Increase their general practice/registered nursing service capacity in the funded after hours period, and must
• Enhance connectivity between local services and community.

Who have we commissioned?

SEMPHN is pleased to announce 11 general practices have been awarded funding to increase the availability of their services in the after hours.

The tender was open to all general practices across the 10 local government areas of the SEMPHN catchment.

Contract start and end times differ between successful practices. 

General practices who received funding:

• Hastings After Hours Medical centre (Mornington Peninsula Shire)
• My Clinic South Yarra (Yarra City Council)
• McDonald Street Medical Centre (Kingston City)
• Chelsea Heights Medical Centre (Kingston City Council)
• Keys Medical Centre (City of Greater Dandenong)
• My Clinic Elsternwick (City of Stonington)
• My Clinic Prahran (City of Stonington)
• RealCare Health Clinic (Port Phillip)
• Elite Medical Group (Mornington Peninsula Shire)
• Pakenham Medical Clinic (Cardinia Shire)
• Prahran Health Care Clinic (City of Stonington)

After-hours innovation in primary care 

Better Health Family Clinic in Hampton Park were successful via an open tender process to:

• extend bulkbilled Allied Health services in the After Hours’ period, including psychology, podiatry, physiotherapy, dietetics, wound care and minor procedures
• extend specialist respiratory clinic hours with services of a specialist from Monash Health
• open and operate a refugee and asylum seeker primary care clinic, and,
• raise community awareness of after hours’ services.

These services are contracted from 1 March 2019 to 31 October 2020.

Associated tags

• after hours
• commissioning