Collaboration of state and federal health bodies is key, inquiry hears

Ms Mills said it was "essential" for the MPHN to work together with the Murrumbidgee Local Health District, as the week-long inquiry hearings continued at the city courthouse on Tuesday.

"As an organisation focused on supporting primary care providers across the region, we have a role in improving coordination of care, commissioning primary care services to meet local population health needs, and supporting capacity building to ensure a sustainable workforce," she said.

"Key to being able to deliver on this is working collaboratively with the MLHD."

Ms Mills said the "strong" and "formalised" partnership with the MLHD enables the health network to "strengthen service delivery in the region and move towards a one health system approach."

Ms Mills also drew the inquiry's attention to workforce challenges across the region.

"While we recognise emergency departments can become the default primary care provider in regional and rural areas due to limited or no access to GPs, more work needs to be done to ensure communities can access primary healthcare providers when they need to," she said.

But Ms Mills said consideration to fund GP and primary health care related services through the state system should be a last resort.

"[It] should only be considered where there is market failure with a focus on restoring services to the community, to avoid impacting the sustainability of local general practice," she said.

Ms Mills also raised the importance of timely communication between the hospital and a person's GP after a stay in hospital, to ensure appropriate follow up by the primary care team.

"Data shows that patients who visit their GP within two days of discharge from hospital results in 32 per cent fewer readmissions within the first week," she said.

"[Further], a visit in the first four weeks results in seven percent fewer readmissions in that period,' she said.

MPHN's Senior Advisor and former CEO Melissa Neal also testified before the inquiry on Tuesday, noting there are other opportunities for innovation and partnership under a more formalised approach.

She said the "siloed nature of healthcare funding" between acute and primary healthcare settings and between state and federal funding domains "becomes more evident and relevant in areas like the Murrumbidgee region."

Ms Neal said joint funding opportunities help to avoid a duplication of services, resulting in a more effective use of resources when working to ensure regional needs are met.

"For example, primary health networks nationally are tasked with understanding the needs of local communities and use this [information] to inform our work - including the commissioning of services," she said.

"Similarly, local health districts also work to understand health needs to plan services."

Ms Neal said there are opportunities to strengthen regional planning approaches through joint needs assessments and planning.

"The MPHN and the MLHD are developing a joint regional planning framework for the Murrumbidgee area as part of the work with the Murrumbidgee Health and Knowledge Precinct."

For more information about the Special Commission of Inquiry into Healthcare Funding, visit www.healthcarefunding.specialcommission.nsw.gov.au