How a young child was turned away as GP clinics shut across Australia

My son desperately needed to see a doctor. We were turned away from three in less than an hour. How is this acceptable, argues Lillian Saleh.

When your child comes home from school literally screaming in agony, you would do anything to take their pain away.
What I didn’t expect that to involve was driving around south west Sydney trying to find a GP on a Monday afternoon. We have a regular doctor but she works in a clinic 30 minutes’ drive away. By the look on my son’s face and the growth on his knee that came out of nowhere, I rushed him to the medical centre literally a three minute drive from our home.

It was 4.06pm and the centre was closed.

“Due to shortage of doctors and a very long wait, we are unable to take any more patients”, a note taped to the door read.

It closes at 7pm. I walked in anyway to just one person in the waiting room and four receptionists behind the counter. Despite my pleas, they refused to budge and told me to try a clinic in a neighbouring suburb.

No luck there either. At least their waiting room was full and despite closing at 8pm they too refused to see us. “Come back tomorrow,” the receptionist said – to which my now sobbing five-year-old replied: “But I can’t handle the pain”. The third clinic we tried closed at 11pm. It was now 4.28pm and they too refused to see us. Again my pleas for help and my son’s tears meant nothing.

The closed sign on the GP clinic door. Picture: Supplied

I had two options – I could go two ways – a 15 minute drive the my local hospital’s ER department or 30 minutes to my regular GP. I opted for the latter, worried about clogged-up public hospital waiting rooms. My GP wasn’t rostered on that day, so we opted for the “first available” doctor. It would be almost two hours before we are seen.

Sent home just after 7.15pm with antibiotics and told to come back in two days as the growth on his knee was too badly infected to even be touched. But it burst the next morning when my son accidentally hit his knee on the leg of our dining table and a scene from The Exorcist followed.

So a mad dash back to our GP at 8am followed. Another long wait but this time we got to see our Dr, who calmly took my son into their treatment room and did her thing. I literally burst out crying as she was treating him – overcome with a sense of relief and helplessness at the same time.

How the hell this is acceptable in 2023 is beyond me.

Originally published as How a young child was turned away as GP clinics shut across Australia