"You're 3 Steps Away From The $500,000 NRRHIP Grant"

ROUND 7 Opening Soon ...Hurry!

 

Dear Health Practitioner, 

If you're considering applying for the National Rural and Remote Health Infrastructure Program (NRRHIP), then this information is specifically for you. This page is designed to educate you about the NRRHIP program so you can make an informed decision.

You see, the last few years have been really tough for the rural health industry, with the sector experiencing a number of challenges including:

1. Rapidly aging population with a high incidence of chronic disease.
2. Workforce close to retirement with difficulty in finding suitable replacements
3. Health budget cutbacks and withdrawal of various government incentives
4. Professional isolation and stress coping with overwhelming patient demands

On top of everything, your practice needs to deal with government bureaucracy:

• Permits and licenses (e.g. Professional Registration and Indemnity, WorkCover, WorkSafe, etc.)
• Tax (GST, BAS, PAYG, etc.)
• HR (super, annual leave, long service leave, maternity, etc.) 

Is it any wonder why so many health professionals are throwing in the towel?

Some manage to profitably sell their practice to spend time with their family. Others struggle to find a buyer and simply close their doors and walk away – putting pressure on other practices in the area. Hardly a week goes by before another story of a rural practice who “just had enough” hits the media.

Staff members lose jobs; patients lose hope; the local community suffers – it gets very ugly.

Every Grey Cloud Has a Silver Lining

Over the last 5 years there have been 1,000+ articles and research papers highlighting the disadvantages faced by rural areas when compared with their metro areas. Yet, despite the overwhelming evidence base and the ongoing 'lip service' given to this issue (especially by politicians around election time), nothing much has changed over the years. Rural areas today still continue to be disadvantaged and experience poor health outcomes.

Fortunately the Australian government has finally recognised the burden faced by rural health professionals. The NRRHIP program has been created to provide up to $500,000 for practices located in rural and remote area (population less than 20,000) to acquire additional infrastructure and equipment.

Don't be Fooled by a 'Free' Lunch

Getting a grant from the NRRHIP program will certainly help your practice as it is the only grant program available which covers the cost of purchasing land (in addition to extensions and relocations).   However, having dealt with DOHA in the past, you’re probably reluctant to invest time and energy to complete the grant application – and for good reasons.

After all, the vast majority of grant applications are unsuccessful. Submitting a NRRHIP grant application that is rejected does not only lower morale but also wastes valuable resources... with nothing to show for it but a letter of rejection (even if it's politely worded... giving you hope but not funding).

This is particularly true when you're asking for $300,000+ ...as it gets extremely competitive.

In fact, did you know that in Round 4…

86% of NRRHIP Applicants were Unsuccessful!

That's right... almost 9 out of 10 people who applied, were rejected.

It's your choice... to be:

1. Part of this statistic in Round 7 ... or
2. In the top 10% of applicants that 'get the money'

We’ve been working with business owners and health professionals for over 5 years and have realised that while they’re good at operational aspects, they don’t know what to do when it comes to applying for government grants.

Most of them:

• Are too stressed to think and have no idea what is expected of them
• Leave grant applications to the last minute… (often until it’s too late)
• Provide vague, brief and cryptic answers which often don’t address the selection criteria
• Have no concept of project management and what a 'proper budget' and 'risk management plan' should look like

Can you relate to any (or all) of the above?   If you've said Yes, then we can help you. 

Round 7 is the last round... then the NRRHIP Funding is Gone!

The original $46 million funding covers years 2008-2012. No more funding has been allocated for NRRHIP grant in the subsequent years. Therefore this is the last chance to get the NRRHIP grant for your practice

That's why BEFORE you even consider starting an application, answer the following 3 questions:

1. When was the last time you successfully applied for a competitive government grant?
2. Do you have time to read through 100+ pages of guidelines and supporting material?
3. Do you even know where to start?

Introducing the NRRHIP Grant 'Solution'...

We can help by:

1. Doing most of the work
2. Taking most of the risk

We've came up with a 'done-for- you' VIP Service which is tailored to health professionals and includes:

• A diagnostic consultation to fully understand your project
• A comprehensive 7 page pre-application guide
• Project strategy development to maximise your chances of success
• Writing and completing the application on your behalf
• Inclusion of 10 relevant references / statistics to support and strengthen your argument
• Comprehensive 10+ page demography analysis identifying local service needs
• Actuarial analysis and mathematical calculations to justify the benefits of your project
• Coaching and mentoring throughout the process
• Letter of Support Template (along with 15 sources to approach)
• Independent quality assurance
• A Comprehensive Checklist prior to application submission

Our unique grant submission methodology will maximise your chance of being successful while minimising your involvement (as you probably have better things to do than to ‘stuff around’ with grant paperwork).

We've recently completed a large number of health grants and received positive feedback from our clients (who rated us on average 9 out of 10). Many clients also expressed their ‘surprise’ at the amount of work  involved– something they only realised once we delivered them the final application (which exceeded their expectations).

However, the most important part (and this is what you should focus on) is that almost all of these 20+ clients were successful in obtaining between $300,000-$500,000 in health grants. That’s right, we had over 20 clients who were successful in getting grants because they’ve used our service!

 Compensated for Results rather than Effort

Best of all, Grant Solutions is primarily compensated on results (rather than effort). A major component of our compensation is only charged if the grant application is approved.

Our consultants understand the health industry, have interrogated the health policy papers and know what the government is looking for. We have also been featured in the Public Accountant Magazine (August 2012 issue) with a 3 page article (which we’ll be happy to forward to you) covering the common mistakes made by grant applicants – and how to avoid them.

We therefore expect that our clients will be successful (providing they are eligible and have genuine merit) while identical projects of non-clients will be deemed unsuccessful. The key point of difference will be our ability to communicate the value of these projects in a way that gets them ‘across the line’.

Grant Solutions has successfully obtained grants between $300K and $7M grants for our clients.

In the 4th NRRHIP round, Grant Solutions submitted 4 client application and 'got the money' for all of them.  Sure, it wasn't easy (our consultants spent 50+ hours per application) but each client got the result they were looking for.

In fact, 2 of our clients unsuccessfully applied themselves for previous NRRHIP rounds... and didn't want to (nor could they afford to) be rejected again. 

This time, they used our services… and were successful.

 Why did the other NRRHIP applications fail?

The majority of unsuccessful submissions did have significant merit… but they were unable to successfully communicate that merit through the application form. Even if they did a good job… there was still too much competition (302 applicants for 42 funded projects in Round 4). 

So ask yourself… is it worthwhile to invest 50+ hours into the grant application process, knowing that your chances of success is around 10%?

Or wouldn't you rather invest that time into your business… and let Grant Solutions handle the NRRHIP application (so your chances of ‘getting the money’ improve dramatically)?

There is however a Catch… and it’s important

We won’t be able to handle the anticipated number of clients needing our services. We’ll try to help as many as possible, but once we’ve reached capacity… ‘all bets are off’.

There will be a waiting list but regrettably many will miss out. We want to help everyone… but will be forced to say ‘no’ to prevent our team from being overloaded and overwhelmed (especially as the submission deadline approaches).

On previous occasions health professionals have:

• Tried to reach us outside of office hours (including Saturday and Sunday)
• Offered compensation far above our standard fees
• Claimed we accepted them as clients (when we only said ‘maybe’)

In each case these requests were regrettably but firmly declined (as we’ve already had a long waiting list).

Realistically you probably have only a few days to decide before that decision is made for you. We’re happy to answer questions, provided that you’ve carefully read all the information available on this page. Please keep in mind that we’ll be working at capacity and our priority will be to assist existing clients with their projects (rather than focusing on acquiring new clients). 

Sounds FAIR doesn't it? We think so and so did our satisfied NRRHIP clients.

 

Interested? These are the Next Steps...

 

For additional information please review our 13 page Grant Solutions $500K NRRHIP Report  

To Your NRRHIP Success,

 

Ross Turetsky MBA, BCom, BInfosys
Managing Director, Grant Solutions

---

The National Rural and Remote Health Infrastructure Program (NRRHIP) aims to improve access to health services by providing funding to rural and remote communities where the lack of infrastructure is a barrier to the establishment of new, or the enhancement of existing health services.

The government will provide more than $46 million over the next four years to improve access to funding for essential health infrastructure, equipment and service planning for rural and remote communities.

NRRHIP Aims

The NRRHIP aims to:

• improve access to health services by providing funding to rural and remote communities to establish ‘walk-in/walk-out’ primary health care and medical facilities, where the lack of infrastructure is a barrier to the establishment of new, or the enhancement of existing health services;
• improve the viability of rural private hospitals; and
• increase the range of privately insurable health services available to rural and remote Australia.

NRRHIP Objectives

• support local rural and remote communities to develop flexible, long-term solutions for the provision of health services to meet the needs of the community;
• assist the establishment and/or refurbishment of primary health care and medical facilities in rural and remote communities;
• retain community access to rural private hospital services;
• support allied health professionals to establish, continue and/or enhance the delivery of privately insurable health services to rural and remote communities; and
• make it easier for rural and remote communities to recruit and retain the services of general practitioners (GPs) and allied health professionals.

Eligibility Criteria

Those eligible to apply for funding under the NRRHIP include:

• Local government organisations (shire councils, district councils, regional councils);
• Divisions of General Practice;
• Indigenous Community Councils;
• Private practitioners, where funding will be used for training facilities for medical students/registrars;
• Allied health professionals, who are providing privately insurable health services, and dentists in private practice; and
• Rural private hospitals including those eligible under the former Bush Nursing, Small Community and Regional Private Hospitals program

Under the NRRHIP an allied health professional may include:

•  Aboriginal Health and Mental Health Workers
•  Audiologists
•  Chiropractors
•  Chiropodists
•  Dietitians
•  Optometrists
•  Occupational Therapists
•  Orthotists/Prosthetists
•  Physiotherapists
•  Podiatrists
•  Psychologists
•  Registered nurses in specialist roles (including asthma management, diabetes education or mental health)
•  Speech pathologists

All Applicants must have an Australian Business Number (ABN) or an Australian Company Number (ACN) to apply for funding under the NRRHIP.

Fund Use

A total of $500,000 (GST exclusive) is available under the NRRHIP for eligible applicants seeking to provide services in rural and remote communities with populations of up to 20,000.

The amount for each funding stream of an application will be capped as follows:

• $500,000 (GST exclusive) for capital works / refurbishment;
• $250,000 (GST exclusive) for equipment; and/or
• $50,000 (GST exclusive) strategic service planning for rural private hospitals.

An applicant may apply for funding under more than one (1) funding stream, but the total of their application must not exceed $500,000 (GST exclusive).

Only one application per applicant will be accepted in each funding round.

Note: Applications from suburbs within larger townships will not be considered. The population of the township will be taken into consideration and not the population of the individual suburb.

Capital Works / Refurbishment may involve:

• the acquisition or establishment of new buildings and/or fit-out or renovations of existing buildings;
• establishment or refurbishment of facilities that are located on hospital or health campus grounds; and/or
• refurbishment of private practices to establish training facilities for medical students and/or medical registrars.

Equipment may involve:

• the purchase of equipment, including specialist medical/surgical equipment, technology upgrades such as computer hardware and software, patient information management systems, networking systems for medical personnel, telephone systems and videoconferencing equipment; and
• the provision of resources to pilot innovative approaches to the delivery of privately insurable health services.

Strategic Service Planning for rural private hospitals may involve:

• undertaking a feasibility study for a particular health service delivery model, including the introduction of privately insurable health services;
• undertaking a consultancy and community/stakeholder consultations to assist the development of appropriate health service delivery models to address community needs and to enhance the long term viability of the services;
• support for accreditation;
• examining current administrative and financial management arrangements in order to achieve economies of scale; and/or
• funding of planning activities, such as a project officer overseeing the capital works activity.

Ineligible Use of Funding

  Funding will not be provided for:

• acute care patient fees;
• aged care services and facilities;
• salaries for administrative staff who are undertaking normal duties;
• salaries for health professionals;
• strategic service planning other than rural private hospitals;
• conference attendance;
• consumables;
• rental costs for residential accommodation for health practitioners. However, consideration will be given to projects that incorporate self-contained flats within the health service to provide short-term accommodation for health professionals;
• recurrent costs, such as operating expenses, practice management, ongoing building and equipment maintenance and repair, rent, annual licensing fees, insurance and state and local government statutory charges such as rates (exceptions may be made on a case by case basis e.g. in the short-term for the establishment of a new service); and/or
• retrospective costs, i.e. expenses incurred before contractual arrangements with the Commonwealth are completed, or for projects already completed.

Assessment Criteria

Applications are assessed against a number of criteria including:

• Demonstrated understanding of the overarching aims and objectives of the NRRHIP;
• Suitability of the project plan;
• Relevant experience of the project team;
• Demonstrated value for money;
• Demonstrated capacity for sustainability;
• Management of potential or actual competing interests; and
• Risk analysis.