Wollumbin Medical Centre set to close after decades of care in Murwillumbah
A popular general practice ingrained into the fabric of this northern NSW township will soon shut up shop, with its doctors reflecting on the dramatic changes they have seen in the medical profession.
Tweed Heads
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A 118-year-old northern NSW institution will close its doors next month as four key staff hang up their hats after caring for generations of patients.
General practitioners Dr Ian Kettle and David Snedden, along with practice manager Lynn Hall and practice nurse Jane Anderson, will retire when the Wollumbin St Medical Centre in Murwillumbah officially closes its doors on August 2.
The two doctors, who completed their medical degrees together at the University of NSW before joining forces soon after in the late 80s attributed their “wonderful” careers to “great colleagues”, “fantastic staff”, and “wonderful patients”.
The current team’s service to the Murwillumbah community has lasted almost four decades and it was “time they retired”.
“We’ll be 69 in October … it’s time to do other things,” Dr Kettle said.
Despite the practice’s prime location, history, gorgeous architecture, pressed metal ceilings and red cedar flooring, the owners have been unable to find a new doctor to take over the practice.
Dr Snedden recalled a “lot of camaraderie in those early days”.
The doctors said “bureaucracy” altered the rural benefit boundary, making it almost impossible to attract rural doctors, the doctors said.
He said the number of medical doctors taking up general practice in regional areas had dropped from roughly 45 per cent to 10 per cent.
“The shortage of doctors in rural areas is across the board, some areas are much worse than Murwillumbah,” Dr Snedden said.
Dr Snedden said the 1980s and 90s had a better continuity of care connection between GPs and hospitals.
“One of the things with our medical system is the general practice is run by Medicare, a federally funded thing while the hospitals are run by the state government – and that doesn’t help with communication,” Dr Snedden said.
He said the snowball effect from poor communication would in turn affect funding, causing a “health divide”.
Early in their careers regional Northern Rivers doctors were part of a group that ran the local hospital.
“We did a roster on the accident/emergency, we admitted and discharged our patients … we had some specialists, obstetricians, surgeons, and an orthopaedic surgeon,” he said.
Dr Snedden said times have changed and none of the GPs work in the hospital now.
Wollumbin Medical Centre have been advising current patients to register with the remaining three general practices in town.
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