Medical madness: 24-hour centre approved in area with 120 doctors

Council has greenlighted a large northside medical centre in an area which already has 120 doctors practising within 3km.

Council has approvde a major new medical centre at Kedron despite there being 17 other medical clinics within 3km.

The old AMF bowling centre at Kedron will become a 24-hour medical centre and pharmacy despite fierce opposition from neighbours and nearby doctors.

Council approved the Carbone Developments project last month and the appeal period has now ended.

More than 60 people lodged objections and several hundred signed a petition presented to Council.

Council stipulated that the centre can open only from 7am to 9pm, seven days a week, with after hours emergency cases allowed.

Carbone is not allowed to cut down street trees, must build a 2m high acoustic fence and put up signs asking patients to keep quiet after 9pm.

The proposal, flagged in September, attracted the ire of many GPs in the 17 medical clinics and health centres already operating within a 3km radius.

More than 120 people signed an e-petition started by Kedron Wavell Medical Centre.

Agent Trent Bruce in front of the old AMF site.

KWMC partner Marea McMahon said theirs was a family practice which took the time to treat patients properly.

It also was a teaching practice which provided valuable training to young doctors.

She feared the new centre might be run by a corporate medical business focused on profits.

Dr McMahon’s father was also a GP and founded the practice in 1951 at Rode Rd before it moved to its current Gympie Rd site.

“Four generations of families have come here,’’ Dr McMahon said.

She disputed the “needs assessment’’ provided by the developer, saying the area was already at maximum capacity and there was no realistic increase in demand which would justify adding even more doctors.

One of her partners at KWMC, Dr Winifred Sedhoff, said the proposed centre was very large — 10 doctors’ rooms, a 100 sqm pharmacy and consultation and operating rooms.

“Parking for our patients is already a problem and this will make it even worse,’’ she said.

Artist's impression of how the medical centre could look.

A GP at another nearby clinic, who did not wish to be named, said the proposal risked putting quality practitioners out of business.

“Many practices are borderline already because GPs have been underfunded for a long time,’’ she said.

Dr Conor Calder-Potts at Wavell Heights’ Shaw Road Medical Centre said “the last thing the area needed was a big super clinic’’.

“I’m not threatened, I’m confident we have a good, loyal patient base, but it could topple one or two of us,’’ he said.

There are currently 17 GP or health clinics within a 3km radius with more than 120 doctors.

There are also three pharmacies within 3km.

Previously mooted as a Farmer Joe’s, that development was to have replaced the fruit and veg shop which traded next to the site for years until it closed in 2009.

But site owner Carbone Developments could not find a suitable tenant and now planned a multi-GP medical facility, emergency 24-hour care and pharmacy at the 278 Gympie Rd site.

Its “needs assessment’’ said despite the large number of medical services in such a small area, demand should rise because of gentrification and a growing, younger population with children.

The Urban Economics report also said there were no other large vacant commercial sites in the area with sufficient parking where a modern medical centre could be built.

It argued patients would come from Stafford, Gordon Park and Wavell Heights and the site would help service Prince Charles Hospital.

Residents said most of the neighbouring houses were character zoned and the area was already busy and dangerous for children walking or riding to Mt Alvernia, St Anthony’s and Padua schools.

GP CLINICS WITHIN A 3KM RADIUS

Kedron Wavell Medical Centre (150m away), 15 doctors

Kedron Park 7 Day Medical Centre (450m), 13 doctors

Ubuntu Medical (1km), one doctor

South East Dermatology (1.3km), three doctors

Stafford Heights Medical Practice (1.5km), nine doctors

Wavell Medical Centre (1.7km), five doctors

Lutwyche Family Practice (1.7km), five doctors

Junction Road Family Practice (1.9km), 10 doctors

Stafford City Doctors (1.9km), 10 doctors

Corrie Street Medical (2.3km), seven doctors

SmartClinics Chermside (2.4km), 10 doctors

Family Doctors Plus (2.5km), 10 doctors

Rode Medical Clinic (2.6km), three doctors

Platinum Medical Centre (2.9km), nine doctors

Nundah Village Family Practice (2.9km), nine doctors

Shaw Road Medical Centre (1.8km), four doctors

For more details and to read the submissions visit Council’s online development application portal, pdonline, and search for application number A005460847