Davey Street Medical Centre announces February 2024 closure due to loss of doctors

Yet another Tasmanian GP clinic is set to close, with the inability to replace departing doctors proving fatal. Eyebrows have been raised after patients were told there was a fee to transfer records.

Davey Street Medical Centre is set to close for good on February 29, 2024. Picture: Google Street View

Yet another Tasmanian GP clinic is set to close, with the inability to replace departing doctors cited by management as the key reason.

Patients of Davey Street Medical Centre in Hobart were informed by text message earlier this week that the centre would close on February 29 next year.

“Due to severe doctor shortages, doctors retiring or moving on, we have taken the difficult decision that the practice is no longer viable,” the message read in part.

“We understand that you have ongoing medical needs and will need to do so as soon as possible.

“Please contact the surgery to arrange for a transfer of medical records form which must be completed and signed prior to the record being sent at a cost of $30.”

News that patients would be slugged $30 rankled with some, two of which took to social media to voice their displeasure.

One described the move as a “cynical money-grabbing exercise that has no place in ordinary health care”.

The other voiced their anxiety that, as a disability support pensioner, they would be unable to afford the fee.

Practice manager Michele Sutherland, who is based in Sydney, told the Mercury she understood the “push back” against the fee.

She also placed qualifications on the fee not present in the practice’s original text message, such as that there would be discretion on levying it against pensioners or people experiencing financial hardship, and that the $30 was per family.

Davey Street Medical Centre reception and waiting room. 2012 file pic.

Ms Sutherland said the production of records included producing two encrypted discs and sending them via registered post, all of which costed money for which it was reasonable to seek reimbursement.

“If we’ve got potentially up to 2000 patients, it’s costly and time consuming,” she said.

Ms Sutherland said the inability to secure doctors to replace their departing cadre, which included Dr Kim Yong and Dr Misha Johnson, proved fatal.

“It will be down to one part-timer,” she said.

“I can’t operate the surgery without doctors,” she said.

“We’ve got a business to run, rents are high and you can’t service patients with one part-time doctor, it’s impossible.”

Ms Sutherland said the decision to close the practice, which opened some time between 2008–10, was “not taken lightly”.

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“We tried to sell the practice, we tried to acquire other practices to amalgamate and boost our numbers, we’ve even used interstate doctors to do telehealth but we can’t sustain it,” she said.

Ms Sutherland warned the contagion was at risk of spreading further.

“There a lot of practices that are in the same situation that we are,” she said.

“I know of several in Hobart that potentially will close.”

Unlike a number of recent GPs that have been saved via new ownership in deals brokered by the state government – St Marys, Greenpoint (in concert with federal Lyons MP Brian Mitchell and Commonwealth officials), Campbell Town – Health Minister Guy Barnett said there would be no intervention.

Health Minister Guy Barnett. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

“While the closure is regrettable, there are a high number of GP practices within the CBD and surrounding areas, and I encourage affected Tasmanians to get in touch with neighbouring clinics,” he said.

Mr Barnett laid blame at the Commonwealth’s feet, saying closures were the result of a “failure to adequately invest in Medicare”.