For several years, NWMPHN has been an active participant in the Greater Choice for At Home Palliative Care (GCfAHPC) program funded by the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. 

The GCfAHPC program boosts general practice capability in delivering palliative care, as well as coordination and integration to support people who have a known life-limiting condition, by improving choice and quality of care and support in the home. 

As with all its areas of activity, NWMPHN strives to innovate and test ideas pertaining to palliative care and advance care planning. This financial year saw the launch of a new project within this field, and the conclusion of another. 

In 2024, the organisation unveiled the Palliative Care Spotlight – a coordinated series of quality improvement activities for GPs, nurses, allied health providers and non-clinical members of health care teams. 

The activities – which comprised a webinar, two workshops and a six-week quality improvement implementation period – was designed to improve general practice capability, and deepen integration between primary care and community palliative care services. 

In doing this, it addressed three core objectives of the GCfAHPC program: 

• Improve access to palliative care at home and support end-of-life care systems and services in primary health care and community care. 
  
• Enable the right care at the right time and in the right place to reduce unnecessary hospitalisation. 
  
• Generate and use data to support continuous improvement of services across sectors. 
  

The spotlight was designed through consultations with NWMPHN’s Primary Health Care Improvement team, senior leadership, and clinical experts from three local palliative care services. 

Geriatrician and palliative medicine physician Dr Haoming Zhuo was appointed as Clinical Lead for the project. Dr Zhuo provided strategic guidance, clinical input, and ongoing support to participants and NWMPHN staff. 

Some 24 people registered for the spotlight, which kicked off with a webinar titled Practical palliative care for general practices: working together for better outcomes. It introduced foundational concepts in palliative care and advanced care planning, exploring ways to build primary care capability to better support and manage palliative care patients in the community. 

A workshop in February 2025 provided clinical education for the participants and invited them to identify areas of their own practice that would benefit from structured quality improvement activities. 

Over the following six weeks, participants tested improvements in their practices, focusing either on palliative care delivery or advance care planning. Ideas were formulated and trialled, with outcomes measured and recorded. 

A concluding workshop in April 2025 allowed people to share their experiences, compare notes and devise ways to further develop end-of-life clinical engagement. 

The completed spotlight was fully RACGP accredited and contributed to GP CPD requirements. 

Feedback and reflection from participants and staff showed the spotlight format to be successful in training and motivating health care professionals. Lessons were learned in terms of identifying ways to finesse design and delivery, and these are informing other quality improvement processes now being developed. 

Self-reflection activities showed improvements in clinician confidence, practice team knowledge, processes and skills between the first and second workshops. One of the palliative care participants reported increased confidence in five of the six assessed activities. 

Participants also reported Improved knowledge of local palliative care services and referral pathways, and increased awareness of support services such as Victoria Virtual Specialist Consult Service.