Health Hub Doctors Morayfield director at a loss after Governments pass the buck over funding

Almost 10,000 people have signed a petition amid fears more pressure will be placed on two of the state’s busiest emergency departments.

A vital health service has been cut and thousands of patients stranded after a funding war over urgent care services erupted.

There are now fears more pressure will be subsequently placed on two of Queensland’s busiest emergency departments, after local doctors clinic north of Brisbane begun redirecting patients.

Health Hub Doctors Morayfield was forced to close its Minor Accident and Illness Centre last week due to a “lack of support from governments”, according to the centre’s director.

Patients with urgent, non-life-threatening injuries such as burns and broken bones will now have to travel to Redcliffe and Caboolture hospitals.

Health Hub Doctors Morayfield was forced to close its Minor Accident and Illness Centre last week.

The $100 million dollar centre opened in 2017 and has been providing urgent care services in additional to general practice, treating around 70,000 patients a year.

Health Hub Doctors Morayfield director Dr Evan Jones said the urgent care model is a popular one.

“Urgent care sits between emergency departments and general practice, it's very well established in other countries,” Dr Jones said.

“I bought a particular model of that here because I saw how well it worked in alleviating pressure off emergency departments as well as delivering high-quality timely care to patients.

“Rather naively (I) thought that at some point in time the State and the Federal Governments might get their act together and actually fund something that’s about good quality patient care but that’s not the case.”

The $100 million dollar centre opened in 2017 and has been providing urgent care services in additional to general practice, treating around 70,000 patients a year.

Dr Jones says the clinic was losing between $80 to $150 a patient in urgent care.

“After extensive discussions with various levels of government we couldn’t continue to lose about $200,000 a month,” he said.

“It goes to the dysfunction of our health system, each level of government don’t want to take any responsibility for this and don’t want to get their act together to actually co-operate to deliver this model of care.

“The Federal Government could solve this by creating NBS item numbers which are specific for urgent care … we’ve made submissions to them and they’ve ignored that.

“Likewise there is a mechanism for the State Government to support this as well but they’ve chosen not to support that so my hands are tied.”

Dr Jones said after losing an amount he shudders to think about he had to face facts.

“I can’t afford to lose a quarter of a million dollars a month … none of them want to do anything about it,” he said.

“No one wants to solve the problem, they just point at someone else.

“This was to be a quality model for how we would deliver this model of care throughout Australia and relieve all of the demands that is unnecessarily going to emergency departments.”

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Thousands of patients have been left at a loss after hearing the news.

The move has prompted a petition of support for the practice which has garnered more than 7800 signatures in three days.

“As a resident of the Moreton Bay region, I am unhappy about the lack of support from the federal and state governments, for the Minor Accident and Illness Centre at the Health Hub Morayfield,” the petition reads.

So far, more than 9500 have signed.

But for now, Dr Jones says it’s just a waiting game.

“We will just wait and continue work with our general practice,” he said.

“We’re vaccinating 3-4000 people a week with Covid vaccines – so we have plenty of work but we just can’t continue to absorb a $250,000 loss every month in urgent care.”

It’s understood Queensland Health’s decision to end the grant agreement arrangement with Morayfield Health Hub was made after an independent evaluation, with the centre deemed a Commonwealth Government responsibility.

The Federal Government however believes funding queries regarding the hub’s operations as an urgent care should be directed to Queensland Health.

A spokesman from the federal department of health said the Morayfield centre continues to be eligible for Medicare funding, Practice Incentive Payments and Workforce Incentive Payments like all other general practices in Australia.

“In addition, the Commonwealth is providing significant funding to Health Hub Doctors Morayfield to operate as a General Practice Respiratory Clinic and Commonwealth Vaccination Clinic,” the spokesman said.

Federal Member for Longman Terry Young said he’s toured the facility several times with Dr Jones.

“Dr Jones rang me in August to say that the State Government had decided not to renew this funding, which came as a shock to me as we all know the strain Caboolture Hospital is currently under,” he said.

“It’s disappointing the State Government cut this funding as it has ultimately removed a great service and I hope they will reconsider.

“I encourage all residents to contact their State member in this matter.”

State Member for Morayfield Mark Ryan disagreed saying the funding for private health clinics is the responsibility of the Federal Government.

“This is yet another example of the Morrison Government refusing to take responsibility,” he said.”

“The Federal Government refuses to provide sufficient Medicare funding for primary healthcare services and then expects the state to subsidise their underfunding of health services in our community.”