New directory of child/adolescent friendly GPs

The Health for Kids Network -863 registered GPs & still recruiting

The Infoxchange Australia newsletter this week tells of a new health network of GPs who are specifically interested in, or who specialise in, child/adolescent health. The network is based on a formal memorandum of understanding between Divisions of General Practice and Hospitals in Metropolitan Melbourne.

The website http://www.healthforkids.net.au allows hospitals, community health centres or other agencies to identify local doctors for families who do not already have a regular GP and parents can find a child-friendly doctor by using the online Service Seeker. There is an impressive looking Resource Library with lots of links to helpful websites which of course will be useful to parents right around the country not just the Melbourne metro area.

The website features:

• public access and members-only access area, both with their own news board and e-Library;
• members can contribute their own news to the member-only news board;
• intranet members can elect to receive the regular Infocast, and can also view the list of useful links for practitioners;
• alongside the static information pages, there is also the interactive tailored Service Seeker;
• navigation around this website is facilitated by a site map.

The Health For Kids Network is currently recruiting GPs for membership. Registration provides access to the “members only” section of the website and includes GPs in the Directory child/adolescent friendly GPs.

What a resource AND model for regional areas/other states (?) As a brand new grandmother I can think back to my first year of ignorant motherhood and know what a comfort and help this would have been then, AS WELL AS during all those growing up years. I remember a very wise Kinder Director saying to me as our last little boy was off to school, “The ‘problems’ don’t disappear as kids grow up, they just change! ”