Dr Franziska Levin travelled a very long way – professionally and geographically – before taking up her current position as a general practitioner at community health provider cohealth.
“I studied medicine in Germany and Italy and then moved to the UK straight after graduation for my post-grad training,” she says.
“In the UK I spent some time training in general medicine before starting paediatrics training in London, which had always been my chosen speciality.”
She never really considered being anything other than a paediatrician, she adds, until she spent some time in Australia with a family member who is a GP. It was an illuminating experience.
“I really enjoyed the prospect of looking after everyone over a long period of time and seeing the whole spectrum of medicine,” she says.
“I decided to change to general practice in 2011 and completed my training part-time over the next seven years. We moved as a family to Australia in 2018 and I have been working in different general practice and hospital-based positions since then.”
Much as she enjoys her role, she is determined to work to change the community health sector for the better – hence her decision to join North Western Melbourne Primary Health Network’s (NWMPHN’s) General Practice Expert Advisory Group (GPEAG). Franziska takes over as Chair of the EAG from August 2025, replacing Dr Simon Benson.
“Seeing patients experiencing the difficulty of accessing adequate care on a daily basis, I hoped to be able to look at ways of changing some of the issues experienced by my patients and work on better solutions,” she says.
“NWMPHN’s GPEAG is a great option of feeding back some of the issues experienced ‘on the ground’ and looking at local but also at broader solutions.”
She is also a member of MATCH, which stands for ‘medical advocacy together for community health’.
“It’s an advocacy group comprising members from different Aboriginal Controlled Community Health Organisations, together with refugee and community health organisations,” she explains.
“We look at how to improve recognition of complexity, funding and ultimately patient care and access.”
Dr Levin has been practicing in Australia for just six years, but in that time, she says, she has seen some worrying developments in the ways community health and general practice are funded to operate.
“When I first started working in Australia in 2019, it was easier for patients to access bulk-billed GP services and allied health appointments appeared more affordable,” she recalls.
“I did not see many patients then who had delayed accessing care due to cost issues. I see that frequently now.”
Another thing she sees a lot is patients experiencing what she calls “fragmentation of care”.
“An example might be a patient with UTI symptoms who initially got antibiotics from a pharmacy, then presented to an urgent care clinic when symptoms did not improve and then comes to see me if they are still not better,” she says.
“I will then spend a significant amount of time trying to get all the relevant information about what has been prescribed, what tests if any were organised and which lab has the results and so on to provide ongoing care for this patient.”
Franziska says she hopes GPEAG can hear from GPs in many different work settings, to gain a deep understanding of current issues and how to address them.
“Providing long-term care for complex patients is another issue I am interested in, to complement the current high investment into single point urgent care provision,” she says.
Current activities
GPEAG meets four times a year. At the most recent meeting members reflected on the AOD Stigma project and their involvement in filming used to promote it.
The group also discussed how NWMPHN can provide support for practices with the new RACGP Standards for general practices 6th edition, and the new telehealth changes anticipated for online prescriptions, particularly around cannabis prescribing.
