‘It sucks our government doesn’t support us enough’: GP clinic owner speaks out on closure

The owner of a Pomona GP clinic has spoken candidly on the practice’s recent struggles as its looming closure has left staff devastated and locals shocked.

Pomona Family Medical will close its doors for the last time on 21 December 2022.

A Pomona GP clinic which has serviced the local community for more than 30 years will close its doors for the final time next week, leaving residents reeling, and staff devastated.

Pomona Family Medical, which has been owned by Cooroy Family Medical Pty Ltd since 2017, alerted patients to its impending closure via a text message last week.

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Cooroy Family Medical managing director Damien Kiely said it was an agonising decision for the business, and not one that was made quickly or lightly.

“We have tried for as long as we can to make it sustainable, but it’s just not,” he said.

“We can’t attract doctors because of the shortage. And that’s not just in Pomona, it’s the same story across all of Australia.

“There are not enough GPs coming through that we can attract doctors, especially to regional areas, and unfortunately it doesn’t look like it will change any time soon

“I think it sucks that our government doesn’t support us enough that we can keep doctors in local communities.”

The Medicare rebate was frozen in 2013, and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners says this has contributed to a decline in the quality of healthcare in regional Australia.

“GPs in rural and remote areas are facing increasing demand, while the decline in patient subsidised care through the MBS, through both the Medicare freeze and the failure to appropriately index patient rebates over successive governments, has impacted the viability of their practices,” their 2022 advocacy priorities state.

It’s an all-too-familiar situation for Mr Kiely.

“At the end of the day, there’s a cost of service that we have to pay as the business, and if the revenue consistently doesn’t meet that, then we have to reassess if we can continue,” he said.

“Patients have been used to bulk billing for a long time now, but unfortunately the cost of service to run a practice is far greater than what the Medicare rebate covers. The reality is, patients now need to pay for a service. There comes a point of sustainability, and having bulk billing practices isn’t sustainable. In the current environment, it’s a good way to go bankrupt.”

The practice has also closed the ability to make online bookings on the HotDoc website, and updated the bookings page with a message that reads: “Our Valued Patients, Pomona Family Medical will be closed permanently from 22/12/22. Medical records will be transferred to our sister practice Cooroy Family Medical. Requests for medical records transfer after 22/12/22 can be actioned by emailing [e-mail] Medical records transfer prior to 22/12/22 can be actioned by contacting Pomona Family Medical.”

Staff at the practice have been offered alternative employment opportunities with Cooroy Family Medical, and all patient files will transferred to the Cooroy clinic to ensure they remain available to patients.

“We need to make sure that records aren’t lost, so we made the decision to store them at Cooroy Family Medical so they can be accessed by patients when they are transferring to another practice,” Mr Kiely said.

While the news of the clinic’s closure has come as a shock to many, local GPs have been warning of an impending GP shortage for some time, and warned that it would “not be good news for the hospital”.

Mr Kiely echoed this sentiment.

“It forces people back into the public health system which is already overrun and overstretched by everything that has happened with COVID,” he said.

Locals have taken to social media platforms to share their shock and disappointment at the news, with one devastated patient writing “Oh no! I’ve been going there for 21 years!”.

The Gympie Times spoke to a range of local GP clinics in November to find out who is taking on new patients, who is bulk billing, and what the wait times are to see a doctor.