In late May and for the second year running, the 12 regions in HealthPathways NSW and ACT jointly promoted HealthPathways to general practitioners and other health professionals at the General Practice Conference and Exhibition (GPCE) in Sydney.

GPCE Sydney took place from 18-20 May 2018 at Sydney Showground, welcoming over 1300 health professionals from across Australia to refresh knowledge, network, and see the latest innovations.

“Our combined expo stand was an effective and affordable way to raise awareness for what HealthPathways could offer GPs,” says Chelsea Martin, HealthPathways Coordinator for the Sydney North Primary Health Network.

“We presented live pathway demos to help GPs see what a pathway looks like and get an understanding of what the HealthPathway programmes across NSW and ACT are all about,” she says.

“We also encouraged new GPs to explore the pathways and showed them what they could offer their patients. We helped them to learn more about what was available at local clinics and find details to help ensure they made referrals appropriately.”

Presenting collaboratively with similar content under the same HealthPathways brand also helped GPs with patients located close to regional borders to see possibilities beyond regional silos, says Chelsea.

“A patient living on the border between two regions can access information from both regions when GPs use HealthPathways to check what options and services are available nearby.”

The team of six represented the 12 HealthPathways NSW and ACT regions and included programme managers and coordinators from the metro areas.

By joining forces to showcase HealthPathways on behalf of the whole network, the team were able to present 77 live demonstrations, with region-specific information provided according to the GP’s home region. The group also handed out promotional material, including a brochure summarising the benefits of HealthPathways and listing member region details.

“HealthPathways is all about regions working together”, says Chelsea.

“We really wanted to show how HealthPathways is now embedded into a more collaborative way of working. Being able to share resources to spread awareness was definitely a worthwhile exercise for us.”

The GPCE conference also provided the team with the opportunity to connect with other agencies not previously engaged with HealthPathways, to add even more value to the HealthPathways programme, says Chelsea.

Feedback from conference participants was extremely positive, with representative comments such as:

‘big addict, use it all the time’

‘fantastic resource’

‘I love HealthPathways’

‘an amazing resource for students’

‘guidelines useful and relevant – thank you’

‘helps ensure referrals are sent through to the relevant departments’

“The GPCE conference is a fantastic opportunity for the HealthPathways teams to meet various health professionals and hear how well received and utilised the program is for general practice not only in NSW and ACT, but all of Australia,” says Chelsea.

“It was a great way to meet GPs from out of state and also some from New Zealand. HealthPathways NSW and ACT look forward to future opportunities to collaborate as a network and returning to GPCE in 2019.”

From left to right: Paul Bennett (Program Manager HealthPathways Sydney), Chelsea Martin (Sydney North HealthPathways Coordinator), Steve Gibbeson (Program Manager HealthPathways Illawarra Shoalhaven).