A consortium of the Northern Suburbs Medical Service, High Street Family Practice and Kings Meadows Medical Centre will take over the work of Primary Health Tasmania from April 1 this year.

“It’s a federal government program that primary health networks nationwide has been delivering and the local provider, Primary Health Tasmania, has been directly delivering these services for 10 years in the North,” consortium spokesman Dan Lowe said.

“They’ve now, under the mandate of Australian government guidelines, had to outsource these services to private providers.”

Primary Health Tasmania spokeswoman Susan Powell said the existing clinics were established to support new humanitarian arrivals, but were not able to offer ongoing care.

She said local general practices would provide a direct link for humanitarian entrants into the state’s primary health system.

“Moving forward, patients will be able to choose to stay with the same provider for both their initial and ongoing care – an option we think many will welcome following a time of personal upheaval,” Ms Powell said.

Patients will still have the option of moving to a different general practice for their ongoing care, if they’d prefer, she said.

The initial nine-month screening, assessment and treatment services provided by the general practices from April 1 will still be free to patients.

The three Northern general practices, which make up the consortium, will offer greater geographic coverage across Launceston, Ms Powell said, with clinics in the northern and southern suburbs, as well as the city centre. All three clinics are also situated on direct bus routes.

Refugees resettled in Hobart will receive treatment at All Round Health and Community Care, which was commissioned to provide primary health care to new arrivals in the South.

The clinics were chosen after an open tender process, which identified service providers to carry on the existing clinics’ work.