For almost four decades, Glenda Martin watched her GP practice in a small central Queensland mining town go from strength to strength as a pillar of support for her community.
But in recent years the practice's ability to retain staff has taken its toll and, after 54 years in operation, the Blackwater Healthcare Centre has made the "extremely difficult decision" to close its doors permanently from today.
"It's a really good practice. It takes care of patients and looks after the mining sector, so it's a big shock to the town," clinic manager Ms Martin said.
She said since the practice's permanent GP left in March, the team had tried myriad ways to find a replacement but had now exhausted all options.
"We've contacted Health Workforce, all the agencies, we registered the business to bring in overseas trained doctors, but there's just nobody who wants to come to Blackwater," she said.
The Rural Doctors Association of Australia said regional centres across the country were experiencing doctor shortages, but it hoped some measures in the federal budget would help address the chronic issue.
One clinic remains
Blackwater has a population of almost 5,000 people and services a large number of fly-in fly-out mining workers.
Fellow clinic manager Michelle Window was concerned the closure would lead to added pressure for the local hospital and the one remaining GP clinic.
"I'm worried for our community and for our patients," Ms Window said.
"The other [GP] practice has been great and they're willing to take on any of our patients … but they're already under pressure.
"I know there are other places that are in the same boat, so something really has to be done."
Blackwater local Lester Anderson, 73, has been a patient at the clinic for more than 50 years.
"We like it, we trust it, and it's been very good to us," Mr Anderson said.
He agreed the remaining clinic could be "overrun".
"It will just be a lottery to get in to get an appointment at a short notice," he said.
How is the problem being fixed?
Rural Doctors Association of Australia president Megan Belot said GPs had been under-subscribed for years, especially in the bush.
But she welcomed some initiatives aimed at fixing the problem in this week's federal budget, including increased loadings for doctors working in remote areas and more rural rotations for junior doctors.
"A lot of medical students get exposed at university with rural placements and we see this as a very good thing, but we really lose them in those junior doctor years," Dr Belot said.
"We really welcome the increased funding [from 800] to 1,000 placements each year [by 2026], but we would love to see it at 1,600."
She also praised the budget's $8.4 million over three years from 2023-24 to provide 15 additional hospital-based training posts a year for rural generalist doctors and rural GPs.
But Dr Belot said the federal government's decision in July to expand the Distribution Priority Areas classification to outer metropolitan and large regional areas was continuing to hurt rural towns.
"Additional investment and a new funding structure is now needed to counteract the consequences of this decision — those consequences being the flow of international medical graduates out of heartland rural and remote communities," Dr Belot said.
Recruitment push
North of Blackwater in Clermont, doctor Sarah McLay is still battling to attract staff to her clinic.
"We're struggling just getting people in the door and getting them assessed … we're running our appointments on a triage system," Dr McLay said.
The practice has recently been approved for federal government funding to subsidise the wage of a registrar worth a total of $315,000 in bonuses for the next three years.
Dr McLay said she was so worried no-one would apply for the role she was putting together a promotional video to showcase the best parts of living in Clermont.
