Primary Care Impact

North Coast Health Connect – General Practice

Healthy North Coast has commissioned a new service, North Coast Health Connect, to provide 24/7 nurse triage and navigation of our local healthcare system. The service is now available across the North Coast of NSW.

North Coast Health Connect is provided in partnership with Amplar Health and will assist the primary care network to manage demand by:

  • providing high-quality clinical triage around the clock by phone or web chat, and
  • supporting and streamlining consumers to access the right service in the right place at the right time.

General practices will play an important role in the model of care and are invited to be part of the triage network.

Overview

North Coast Health Connect was commissioned through the Primary Care Access Project after a collaborative period of data analysis and codesign.

Health consumers can contact the triage service by phone call or web chat 24/7, where a registered nurse will triage the presenting problem. Triage outcomes include:

    • direction to the nearest emergency department
    • connection to the Mental Health Line or other relevant lines
    • navigation to primary care via an integrated booking system, and/or
    • advice to self care.

View the consumer journey and brief service overview.

The appointment booking service is supported by a customised digital interface that can only be accessed by the triage nurse (not open to the public). Click here for more information on the digitally integrated booking system.

North Coast Health Connect will be evaluated over five years by The George Institute.

Click here to view the North Coast Health Connect — Participating General Practice and Pharmacy Services map.

What's Involved

Selected general practices will receive triaged consumers from North Coast Health Connect via a digitally integrated booking system. 

See here for more information about how consumers are triaged to general practice.

To be considered as a NCHC participating practice, the practice must commit to the following requirements: 

    • Provide 10 (minimum) NCHC access appointments per week 
    • Maintain commitment to NCHC program participation until 30 June 2025  
    • Provide NCHC access appointments to new patients  
    • Provide bulk billed service for all NCHC access appointment bookings  
    • Attempt to backfill unused NCHC access appointments if no triage bookings are received 60 minutes prior to the appointment  
    • Have access to or sign up for a digitally integrated booking system (HotDoc or HealthEngine) 
    • Join LUMOS  
    • Participate in evaluation of the NCHC service with evaluation partner The George Institute

If selected, NCHC participating practices will receive financial support to manage this system change and provide access to urgent same day appointments in general practice.  

North Coast Health Connect will be rolled out progressively as follows: 

    • December 2022: Port Macquarie (now LIVE) 
    • February 2023: Kempsey (now LIVE) 
    • April 2023: Coffs Harbour, Nambucca and Bellingen (now LIVE)
    • May 2023: Northern NSW (now LIVE)
Express Your Interest

Expressions of interest are currently closed. Please contact your Primary Health Coordinator for more information. See contact information below.

Contact for more information

Click here to request more information from the Primary Care Access Project Team.

Click here if your practice is participating in this project
Contact details
Primary Health Coordinators
Contact details
Primary Health and Healthy Ageing Coordinators
Your local success stories
Have a look at our video library.
We'd love to hear from you
Share your comments or suggestions.
MNC and NNSW HealthPathways
Click here for login details.

Healthy North Coast acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands across our region and pays respect to the Elders past, present and emerging. We recognise these lands were never ceded and acknowledge the continuation of culture and connection to land, sky and sea. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as Australia’s First Peoples and honour the rich diversity of the world’s oldest living cultures.

Healthy North Coast is an independent, not-for-profit organisation proudly delivering the PHN program in North Coast NSW. We are committed to improving the health of our communities through quality primary health care.
The PHN program is an Australian Government Initiative.
Facebook Twitter Linkedin

We'd love to hear from you