Sunshine Coast doctors not immune to housing crisis as patient appointment wait times blow out

Young Sunshine Coast medical staff are couch surfing due to a lack of rentals, as the doctor shortage forces patients to wait up to three weeks for appointments.

Young Sunshine Coast medical staff are couch surfing while others are not moving to the area as the housing crisis continues throughout the region.

It comes as the Sunshine Coast doctor shortage affects patient appointments and Covid-19 vaccinations at one busy general practice.

University of the Sunshine Coast fourth-year medical student Locky Clarke, 25, said he had witnessed the Sunshine Coast rental market become increasingly competitive over the course of his degree and had gone to open homes for rentals that attracted up to 50 other people.

He said he knew of doctors who were forced to couch surf because they could not find a home.

He’s applied for a position at the Sunshine Coast University Hospital and, if successful, will start around the time his lease expires on his home in Birtinya in January, 2023.

Mr Clarke said that in the past high-income earners like doctors or lawyers did not have much trouble finding rentals.

“It’s definitely not the case any more,” he said.

Locky Clarke is a fourth-year medical student who has dealt with an increasingly difficult rental market on the Sunshine Coast and says the rental market is difficult for high earners too. Picture: Patrick Woods.

Sunshine Coast Local Medical Association president Doctor Roger Faint said that at his own Buderim surgery, he could not fill two doctor vacancies.

Dr Faint said he spoke to a number of younger doctors, along with pharmacists and nursing staff, who wanted to come to the Coast but could not find housing.

He also said some who were here were couch surfing.

He said the housing issue was one aspect of the doctor shortage on the Sunshine Coast, and also said the Coast was one of the “most heavily doctored” places in the country.

Sunshine Coast Local Medical Association president Doctor Roger Faint.

“If we’re feeling it acutely on the Coast, then you can imagine what is happening in other parts of Queensland,” he said.

He said other issues feeding into the nationwide doctor shortage included Covid-19, which meant people were not travelling internationally.

“It’s hard to attract people even from interstate because they’re not so inclined to travel and move if things are uncertain,” Dr Faint said.

He said the lack of doctors at his general practice, along with the need to continue running vaccination clinics, meant staff were spread thin.

The doctor said patients at his practice were experiencing a two to three-week wait to see a doctor and they could not get their Covid-19 vaccinations until mid-August.