GP Management Plan: Your Questions Answered
What is a GP Management Plan?
A GP Management Plan (GPMP) is a structured approach to helping you manage a chronic or terminal medical condition.
Staying on top of a chronic condition can be hard work. Along with physical symptoms, you may also be dealing with the illness’s effect on your mood, stress levels and job performance as well as its financial impact.
Planning your care can help you avoid the predictable pitfalls of your condition.
A GPMP anticipates the care you will need from your GP and organises it ahead of time so you have the support you need to stay on track.
Who qualifies for a GP Management Plan?
You may qualify for a GP Management Plan if you have a medical condition that has been present (or is likely to be present) for 6 months or longer.
While there’s no definitive list, that would include conditions such as asthma, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, stroke or heart disease.
What can be included in a GP Management Plan?
A GPMP should set out what:
Your healthcare needs are
Services your GP will provide over the coming months
Actions you can take to help manage your condition.
A GPMP for type 2 diabetes, for example, might cover:
Your healthcare needs, such as learning more about diabetes, managing medications, or understanding how to keep your blood sugar in range
Management goals, such as preventing complications of diabetes, reducing side effects of medications or improving your quality of life
Treatment goals, such as structured care at your GP practice or the role played by other providers
Your actions, which could include making lifestyle changes like stopping smoking or exercising more
Monitoring, such as a small review with your GP after 4 weeks with more detailed reviews every 3 or 6 months. It would also set out a timeframe for regular blood tests, eye tests, urine tests and foot checks.
Your GP should give you a copy of your Plan and the two of you should review it together regularly to ensure it is meeting your goals.
What’s the difference between a GPMP and Team Care Arrangements?
Team Care Arrangements (TCAs) are another type of plan your GP can provide. TCAs are ideal if you need ongoing care from several different healthcare professionals.
Many people with type 2 diabetes, for example, can benefit from seeing a dietitian to help manage weight, an exercise physiologist to become more active or a podiatrist to prevent foot complications.
Under TCAs, your GP will collaborate with your chosen healthcare providers, ensuring coordination of services and continuity of care. TCAs also mean you can claim a Medicare benefit for your allied health services. That helps minimise your out of pocket costs (or eliminate them altogether if your provider accepts the Medicare benefit as full payment).
Some patients have a Combined GPMP/TCA or some have a GPMP only. Your GP can advise which is best for you.
How can I get a GP Management Plan at Peregian Family Medical Centre?
We want to help you live as well as you can with your chronic condition. That’s best done by planning ahead.
Your GP may suggest a GPMP or TCA to you during a consultation or you can request one.
Either way, we normally ask that you book a longer appointment as it can take time to create these plans. It’s not something that can be done in a short appointment or at the end of a consultation about something else.
If you get a chance before your appointment, then think about your health before you come. What changes would you like to make? What would you like more help with? What support do you need? We can then talk about that during your consultation and build those supports into your plan.
If you’d like to explore how a GP Management Plan could help you, please book an appointment now.
Disclaimer
All information is general in nature. Patients should consider their own personal circumstances and seek a second opinion.
