GPcare, the new after hours general practice for the Hills community based at Mt Barker Hospital, was officially launched by Hon Alexander Downer MP on Friday, August 18th.

Mr Downer was opening the service following its commencement on August 1st on behalf of the Commonwealth Government which is providing almost 3 years funding to enable the community initiative to be implemented.

“GPcare is a result of people listening and actually understanding what was needed by the community and its GPs.

This was then followed-up by hard work from Division staff,” Dr Michael Taylor, Medical Director of the Division said.

The service, run by the Adelaide Hills Division of General Practice working with Mt Barker Hospital, enhances patient access to general practice emergency care 7 days a week outside of their normal GP’s hours.

Proof of demand is clear with 165 patients attending during the first 3 weeks.

A community awareness campaign commenced at the Mt Barker cinema complex during September.

“It is important that we do not become overloaded with non-urgent care issues that a patient’s regular GP could see in a few days time and we would ask the community to consider this when contacting us,” Dr Taylor said.

The benefits of a clear after hours service are also attracting additional GPs to participate thereby spreading the after hours workload across a wider selection of Hills GPs – this is a key outcome sought from the service.

With the service’s staff and systems now established, GPcare is expecting both patient and doctor numbers to continue increasing over the coming months.

More information is available at www.gpcare.org.au or by ringing 1300 GPCARE (1300 472273), or contact Kevin Wisdom-Hill, (Project Manager of GPcare) on 0448 869 963, 8391 3463 or Kevin@ahdgp.org.au.

Hon. Alexander Downer MP, Dr Michael Taylor and Hon. Mark Goldsworthy MP.