North Western Melbourne Primary Health Network (NWMPHN) will soon seek to commission nine accredited general practices to deliver the Health Care Neighbourhood Project in the Brimbank local government area.
Successful applicants will enhance multidisciplinary care within their practices, working with a three-person ‘neighbourhood care team’ in the practice at least one day each week.
Each successful practice will receive $74,925 (ex. GST) till 30 June 2028.
A select request for tender (RFT) is expected to be released on 26 May 2026, with submissions closing on 2 July 2026 at 3pm AEST. Practices must register to receive the RFT pack – see below for details.
Benefits for practices
- A care coordinator, social worker and mental health clinician on site one day per week to support your patients.
- Funding to support staff engagement in the activity.
- Dedicated support from NWMPHN to help implement system and workflow changes.
The neighbourhood care team will support GPs and practice staff to assess, coordinate and manage complex chronic and mental health care. The model is designed to build practice capability, not create a new service or replace routine GP care.
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 delivering the ‘Health Care Neighbourhood Project’. The project is underway in the local government areas (LGAs) of Hume and Melton, linking allied health professionals and general practices to improve the health of under-served patients.
For the Brimbank phase of the project, the service model will be expanded to include patients with severe and complex mental illness.
The goal of the Brimbank Health Care Neighbourhood Project is to build capability and improve patient outcomes, care choices, and quality of life through multidisciplinary collaboration in managing chronic conditions and mental health within primary care.
The target population includes individuals living in Brimbank who have one or more of:
- chronic conditions and/or psychosocial complexities
- chronic disease and moderate intensity mental health conditions
- severe and complex mental illness affecting daily functioning.
How practices can register to apply for this funding
This opportunity will be a select RFT process conducted through NWMPHN’s tenders portal, Tenderlink.
The RFT is expected to be released on Tuesday, 26 May 2026. To ensure you receive the RFT, please complete these two steps by 5pm on Monday, 25 May 2026:
- Ensure your practice has at least one email address registered for Tenderlink. Visit tenderlink.com/mpcn and view Tenderlink registration information (.pdf) to set up your account, if you don’t have one already.
- Notify NWMPHN of the email address(es) you have registered for Tenderlink by emailing tenders@nwmphn.org.au. This will ensure our procurement team can issue the RFT to the correct contact(s) at your practice.
Market briefing
An online market briefing session will be held from 12pm to 1pm AEST on Wednesday, 20 May 2026. This session will provide an overview of the project, funding, eligibility requirements and the tender process, and offer an opportunity to better understand what participation would involve for general practices.
Key personnel from your practice can register for this session now.
The session is not mandatory, but we strongly encourage you to attend. If unable to attend, a recording will be made available on Tenderlink with the RFT pack for registered practices.
Key dates
| 11 May 2026 | Advance notice distributed to eligible practices |
| 20 May 2026 (12pm – 1pm AEST) | Market briefing |
| 25 May 2026 | Practices must register for Tenderlink and notify NWMPHN to ensure they receive the RFT |
| 26 May 2026 | Select RFT opens |
| 25 June 2026 | Clarification questions close via Tenderlink |
| 2 July 2026 | Select RFT closes |
| 9 July 2026 | Tender evaluation* |
| 2 September 2026 | Notification of successful and unsuccessful applicants* |
Dates marked with (*) are indicative only.
Locations and eligibility
All accredited general practices located within the Brimbank LGA are eligible to apply.
Localities: Albanvale, Albion, Ardeer, *Brooklyn, Cairnlea, Calder Park, Deer Park, Delahey, Derrimut, *Hillside, Kealba, Keilor, Keilor Downs, *Keilor East, Keilor Lodge, Keilor North, Keilor Park, Kings Park, St Albans, Sunshine, Sunshine North, Sunshine West, Sydenham, Taylors Lakes and Tullamarine.
*Parts of these suburbs sit outside the Brimbank LGA boundary. Zoom in on this Victorian Government map to see if your practice sits within it.
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 Brimbank, it may be eligible but only if it can clearly demonstrate that those services meet all required capabilities outlined in this RFT.
Also, providers that intend on applying to participate in the project as a neighbourhood care team are not eligible to apply for this general practice component of the funding. An advance tender notice for the neighbourhood care team component is expected to be sent on 19 May 2026.
Support from NWMPHN
General practices involved in the Health Care Neighbourhood will receive dedicated support from NWMPHN to help implement system and workflow changes within the practice.
This practical, hands-on assistance will be based on practice need and will support change management at the practice to ensure sustainable ways of delivering multidisciplinary care.
Communication and enquiries
All questions must be submitted in writing via the Tenderlink forum once the select RFT opens. NWMPHN cannot respond to questions asked outside of this forum.
If your practice needs support to register for Tenderlink, please contact the Tenderlink support team for assistance. The team is available from 8:30am to 5pm Monday to Friday on 1800 233 533 or support@tenderlink.com to assist your registration process.
