About the Manual

This Manual is designed for use by all NT Aboriginal Primary Health Care Services regardless of their constitutional status. It is also likely to be useful to health services in other jurisdictions especially in regard to policy and procedure and recrutiment proformas. Commonwealth legislation will apply nationwide, but, of course, State and Territory legislative requirements will vary.

PHC services vary in size, staffing, location and climate but all have a majority of Aboriginal clientele. The board of management structures also vary and these are referred to throughout the manual by the generic term health board.

 The manual provides guidelines for policy development with the intent that health services use and modify the information in the manual to suit local needs and to ensure that they are both relevant and workable in the local context. However, many practices will need to comply with legislative requirements and these are highlighted in the manual.

 Accreditation of health services is likely to become mandatory within the next 5-10 years. As these requirements become clearer a section will be added to this site that will assist services in this process.

 The manual includes:

• a checklist of policies that can be used by services to prioritise their policy and procedure development process
• a suggested process for the continuing development and maintenance of policies and procedures
• draft policies & procedures for adaptation by health services
• an overview of legal issues and requirements
• links to relevant internet sites
• a list of useful resources and organisations