PATIENTS across the region will be better serviced under new health networks according to New England MP Barnaby Joyce.
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Mr Joyce said the electorate will receive better access to frontline health services, with the announcement of a combined Primary Health Network.
New England Medicare Local along with Hunter and Central Coast Medicare Local has been awarded the contracts to run the joint Hunter New England and Central Coast Primary Health Network.
Primary Health Networks are an Abbott Government plan and will replace Medicare Locals from July.
“The Abbott Government wants to ensure the people of the New England Electorate are able to access the right care, in the right place, at the right time and Primary Health Care networks form a core part of our plan,” Mr Joyce said.
The Hunter New England and Central Coast Primary Health Network will service an area from Gosford in the south to Tenterfield in the north – 592 kilometres apart.
“As always I am reticent to making promises, but I was very alive to the issue and worked hard to achieve the result we have got,” Mr Joyce said.
“The key difference between Primary Health Networks and Medicare Locals is that PHNs will focus on improving access to frontline services, not backroom bureaucracy.
The state’s nine new Primary Health Networks will better align with state Local Hospital Networks Mr Joyce said.
Chief Executive of the New England Medicare Local, Graeme Kershaw, said minimising the impact on remote areas would be pivotal.
“We need to make sure that the people of the New England don't miss out just because they're joined up into a larger entity that's actually around the same size as England - a vast area to cover,” he said.
"There's a big population down the south end, so we've got to make sure people in the north are looked after in whatever the new arrangements are."
"The New England community is very different to the Upper Hunter community, which is different again to Newcastle and the Central Coast," he said.
The networks will work directly with GPs, other primary health care providers, secondary care providers, hospitals and the broader community.
Networks were selected following a thorough tender process run at arm’s length by the Department of Health.
