Market briefing: Request for tender: Commissioning the Neighbourhood Care Team for the Brimbank Health Care Neighbourhood Project

NWMPHN seeks a suitable provider to deliver the neighbourhood care team component of NWMPHN’s Health Care Neighbourhood Project in the Brimbank local government area.

The neighbourhood care team will play a key role in delivering multidisciplinary care to patients with complex needs. It must comprise three mobile, general practice-embedded teams, each including a credentialed mental health professional/clinician, a clinical care coordinator and a social worker. 

Each mobile team will be commissioned to work at least one day per week at the three practices assigned to them. 

Maximum funding of $2,811,600.00 (ex. GST) to 30 June 2028 is available for the successful applicant. 

The request for tender (RFT) is expected to be released on 2 June 2026, with submissions closing on 7 July 2026 at 3pm AEST.

NWMPHN will use Tenderlink as the portal for this opportunity. To apply, interested providers must be registered on Tenderlink. Visit tenderlink.com/mpcn and view Tenderlink registration information (.pdf) for account set-up instructions.

What is the Health Care Neighbourhood Project?

As part of the Australian Government’s Strengthening Medicare reforms, primary health networks across the country are building multidisciplinary care teams to deliver high-quality continuity of care to address people’s health needs.

With funding from the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, NWMPHN is commissioning multidisciplinary care from allied health professionals and general practices to improve the health of under-served patients.

Known as the Health Care Neighbourhood Project, this activity focuses on the Brimbank LGA, in which residents have high rates of complex and chronic conditions. 

NWMPHN is commissioning general practices and a neighbourhood care team. Successful applicants will work together, and with patients and other community members, to co-design a multidisciplinary model of care that best suits each practice’s ways of working and patient cohort.

The Health Care Neighbourhood Project aims to:

• strengthen the capability of primary care providers to deliver multidisciplinary care
• improve patient care by designing and delivering multidisciplinary care in general practice. 

The intended long-term outcomes include:

• Participating GP practices and allied health clinicians develop capability, and sustain the model of care beyond the life cycle of the project. 
• Broader acceptance that the multidisciplinary model of care is a good way of working and is integrated into general practice.
• Improved chronic disease management, leading to better patient outcomes, reduced hospital admissions and improved integration. 

This funding will be used alongside MBS fee-for-service payments to enable an improved multidisciplinary service delivered at no cost to patients. Patients participating in the project must be bulk billed.

The neighbourhood care team

The neighbourhood care team is critical to the viability of the Health Care Neighbourhood Project. 

The successful organisation will provide three mobile, three-person teams to work with selected general practices in the Brimbank LGA. A commissioning process to source these practices will also commence soon. 

Eligibility and locations

Suitable organisations might come from the community health, allied health or adjacent sectors.  

Please note that hospitals and acute care service providers are not eligible to apply for this funding. It is intended for primary care providers only. However, if an organisation classified as a hospital or acute care provider also operates community health or primary care services within Brimbank, it may be eligible but only if it can clearly demonstrate that those services meet all required capabilities outlined in this RFT.  

Applicants must demonstrate:

• Capacity to participate in co-design and implementation of the Health Care Neighbourhood Project. 
• Commitment to collaborate with NWMPHN, the neighbourhood care team, patients and other community members. 
• Agree to utilise supplementary funding to support the delivery of enhanced multidisciplinary care at no cost to patients. This funding is designed to cover services and activities that are not funded through standard MBS arrangements. All patients involved in the project must be bulk billed.

Please note: providers applying to participate in the project as a neighbourhood care team are not eligible to apply for this general practice funding component.