Geeveston Medical Centre reduced to two days a week, operates at huge loss

A Tasmanian mayor is pleading for an intervention to help run her council’s medical centres, which are operating at a loss. Here’s why operations have been cut back at one centre.

Huon Valley town of Geeveston, the Geeveston Medical Centre

Huon Valley mayor Sally Doyle says council run medical centres are losing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, and there are fears the clinics are unsustainable as the council’s Geeveston doctors cut back to two days a week.

From next week the Geeveston Medical Centre will only operate on Thursdays and Fridays.

It will offer the same number of appointments, but spread out over two days, instead of four.

Ms Doyle said the council was left with no choice, because of the lack of doctors.

“We live here, I live in Geeveston, my kids live in Geeveston. We wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t as urgent as it is,’ Ms Doyle said.

The council runs two medical centres: one in Geeveston and one in Dover. Together they operate at an annual loss of $360k.

Ms Doyle said Geeveston was not at the point of closing, but it was not sustainable.

“We’ve lost money for five years, if we were a private practice we would shut,” she said

“We’ve got over 19,000 people in the Huon Valley, we’ve got a big area to cover as well. “That $360k (loss) we’re budgeting for, I’m sure people in Cygnet or Huonville would like something in their areas for that amount of money.

“The commercial reality is we can’t stay in this much longer and there must be help available.”

Huon Valley mayor Sally Doyle and deputy Toby Thorpe. Image: Huon Valley Council.

Ms Doyle said the council could not attract locums because it could not offer competitive wages.

“Where’s our competitive advantage?” she said.

“The state needs a dedicated approach to attracting medical professionals to Tasmania and making us competitive to the mainland who have more money to spend.

“If we’re reliant on locums, the cost is exorbitant.”

Ms Doyle said government help was needed to fix the situation.

“We’ve reached out to all sides of state politics to say ‘can we please sort this out?’,” she said.

“We’ve met with Julie Collins who understands the situation.

“We haven’t had a response to a letter some months ago to Mr Barnett’s office. We’re being left to our own devices to carry the can.

“We’re doing all this ourselves, this is not a core business of council.”

Health Minister Guy Barnett said he was aware of the reduced hours at the Geeveston clinic.

He said it was not the responsibility of the state government.

“Access to GP services is fundamental to improving health outcomes for Tasmanians, and regional communities like Geeveston will be negatively affected if action is not taken by the Federal Government to improve access,” he said.

But Mr Barnett said the state government had thrown a lifeline to other Tasmanian clinics.

He did not respond to questions about whether the Geeveston Medical Centre would also receive help.

“The Tasmanian Liberal Government is playing our part and has already stepped in to support GP services where the Federal Government has dropped the ball in East Devonport, Lauderdale, St Marys and Derwent Park,” he said.