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Continuing Professional Development
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NWMPHN seeks a suitable provider to deliver the neighbourhood care team component of NWMPHN’s Health Care Neighbourhood Project in the Melton local government area.
The team must comprise a clinical care coordinator and a social worker, and be able to work one day a week with each of three Melton general practices soon to be commissioned.
Funding of $433,104.15 (ex. GST) will be provided over 18 months to the successful applicant.
The request for tender (RFT) is expected to be released on 9 January 2026, with submissions closing on 6 February 2026 at 3:00 PM AEDT.
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, North Western Melbourne (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 Melton LGA, in which residents have high rates of complex and chronic conditions.
NWMPHN is commissioning three 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.
Services delivered under this project must be provided at no cost to the patient.
The neighbourhood care team
Critical to the viability of the Health Care Neighbourhood Project is neighbourhood care team.
The team will be made up of a clinical care coordinator and a social worker. The clinical care coordinator must have a nursing or allied health qualification and experience in coordinating care.
These specific functions have been selected because they have been demonstrated to improve coordination and increase person-centred and comprehensive care.
The neighbourhood care team will be highly mobile and spend one day a week with each of the three participating general practices. It will assist staff in assessing patient need, delivering care, supporting patient self-management, and coordinating access to other allied health and support services in the local area.
Eligibility and locations: Suitable organisations might come from the community health, allied health or adjacent sectors.
Applicants must demonstrate:
- Capacity to deliver the functions of the neighbourhood care team, as described in this notice and, in more detail, at the upcoming market briefing (see below).
- Ability to collaborate with general practices and allied health providers.
- Experience in care coordination and psychosocial support.
Please note:
- General practices applying to participate in the general practice component of the Health Care Neighbourhood Project are not eligible to apply for this funding.
- Hospitals and acute care service providers are not eligible to apply for this funding. This RFT 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 Melton, it may be eligible but only if it can clearly demonstrate that those services meet all required capabilities outlined in this RFT.
