Practice managers strengthening the system through connection

On a rainy Wednesday morning, the hum of conversation fills the cement-walled warmth of Hamlet café in Hobart.

Around the tables, practice managers from across southern Tasmania are catching up, and in some cases, meeting for the first time. There’s no formal agenda, no presentations, and no PowerPoint slides. Just coffee, breakfast, and something just as important: connection, problem-solving, and the chance to speak openly with people who understand the challenges and rewards of the role.

What began as a simple idea has become a valued part of Primary Health Tasmania’s support for the state’s primary care workforce. These informal gatherings now play a quiet but significant role in strengthening collaboration, reducing professional isolation and identifying shared challenges and learnings across general practice, allied health and specialist services.

Practice managers are a critical part of Tasmania’s primary care workforce. They carry responsibility for practice operations, coordinate teams, manage compliance and accreditation, support clinicians, handle patient flow, oversee finances and systems, and hold responsibility for the day-to-day functioning of practices across the state. It is complex, deeply rewarding work but often demanding, and at times, isolating.

The sense of solidarity is especially important for managers working in smaller or regional practices, where they may be the only person in their role. Sharon Chivers, who manages several specialist rooms at Calvary, says the breakfasts make a tangible difference to how she and her colleagues navigate the pressures of the role.

“I think it can be a bit isolating, working as a practice manager,” she says. Sharon is attending the breakfast with her colleague, also a practice manager at a different specialist’s room at Calvary hospital. “Other than each other, we don’t have anyone else. We have our wonderful employees, of course, but you can’t really talk to them the same way we can talk to each other.” She pauses, then adds, “When you come across trouble, it’s good to know who to reach out to. These sort of things are good.”

That sense of relief—of being able to speak openly with people who understand the complexity of the work—is echoed frequently. Another practice manager at a recent breakfast put it simply: “You don’t have to explain why something’s hard. Everyone just gets it.”

This trust creates fertile ground for practical problem-solving. Practice managers strategise and exchange solutions across areas such as rostering, new billing processes, patient engagement, and ways of managing administrative load. They also bring forward concerns about emerging pressures: staffing shortages, changes to referral pathways, demand spikes, and technology updates. The breakfasts allow these issues to surface early and provide a runway for collective thinking.

Leonie Austin, practice manager at Derwent Valley Medical, says the breakfasts have been “a really good way of sharing what we’re doing locally and hearing what others are doing too.” “We’re now open on Saturdays,” she says. “Just mentioning that here means more people know about it.”

Leonie’s practice has also started attending schools in New Norfolk to engage young people in sexual health conversations with a trusted local GP, a community-facing approach that fellow attendees may find inspiration in, as well as sharing knowledge.

For those newer to the role, the breakfasts provide confidence-building and reassurance. Isabelle Ryan from Psychology South and Wellbeing Service says the events have helped her feel connected during her first year in the role. “I was really nervous at first,” she admits. “But everyone’s been so welcoming. I’ve been reaching out for advice and connections, and people have been so generous. Knowing you can text someone later and say, ‘Hey, how are you doing this in your practice?’—that’s huge.”

For Primary Health Tasmania, these breakfasts are more than networking events—they are part of a deliberate effort to support the sustainability and capacity of the primary care system by creating opportunities for shared learning, problem solving and collaboration. The insights gained from these gatherings are regularly used to shape resources, identify emerging system pressures, inform program design and better understand the needs of practices across the state.

More importantly, the breakfasts create community—one that values openness, generosity and collective problem solving. They are shaped by the people in the room, the practice managers who show up, share their experiences and support one another in a role that is essential to the functioning of the health system.

Each breakfast looks a little different: some focus on creative solutions to common challenges, others centre on new relationships or opportunities for collaboration. But all share the same purpose: to give practice managers a place to connect, learn from each other and build resilience in a demanding profession. The sense of ownership that practice managers have is part of the reason why these events have become, for many, a valued part of their professional life.

The breakfasts demonstrate that when people with insight connect, even casual conversations can drive meaningful change. As one practice manager summed it up at the end of a recent Hobart event, “you never know what might come from a simple chat over breakfast”.

This story features in Issue 21 of our Primary Health Matters magazine. Click here to read the rest of the issue.