What's On News June 2020 Hepatitis Community Outreach Program (HEPREACH) update 2020

News

Hepatitis Community Outreach Program (HEPREACH) update 2020

Monday 15 June 2020

Mater hepatology specialists have continued since April 2018 to form clinical and community partnerships with General Practice to deliver a model of care to target populations and community groups; to offer a collaborative community-based hepatology outreach service—the Hepatitis Community Outreach Program (HEPREACH).

Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist Dr Paul Clark and Nurse Practitioner Burglin Liddle have partnered with Beaudesert Road Surgery since this time to deliver HEPREACH, which in June 2019 expanded in operation to include a partnership with Inala Primary Care in the form of an Outreach Specialist Team.

HEPREACH allows clinicians to better reach, engage with, and care for target populations including Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander people, cultural and linguistically diverse people, and people of a refugee background.

Collocating the service in a community practice allows a clinical partnership between GPs and specialists to upskill and care for all patients and participants in their own community. For patients, this means access to specialist care outside of the traditional hospital setting, which immediately breaks down some of the barriers around attendance and adherance to treatment.

Performance data shows the community outreach model has removed patients from hepatology waiting lists and supported a shift of patients to community clinic care, assisting to avoid safety breaches for urgent categories, and reducing failure to attend (FTA) rates.

Three different models of care are available through HEPREACH to improve access to care as well as build health literacy and engagement with difficult to reach populations. These include "in-house" (for example, Beaudesert Road Surgery and Inala Primary Care), remote access, and "Lite" practice support.

HEPREACH is also trialling a videoconferencing model of care for hepatology, and as the larger community deals with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, temporary bulk-billed items have become available to support Telehealth. 

GPs interested in having their patients access these clinics are welcome to refer directly to the Mater Gastroenterology and Hepatology service, indicating a preference for community based care.

Please use the referral guidelines available at materonline.org.au to refer.

For more information HEPREACH or to find out how to access one of the models of care for your practice, contact Burglind Liddle on 07 3163 8452, or email at [email protected].