In a bid to entice a new doctor to urgently fill a vacancy, a New South Wales town is offering three months free rent, with an ongoing rent cap, in a bid to save its community-run aged care home, Eloura.
Quirindi, in the north-west slopes, is losing a doctor who treats a quarter of its aged care residents, and the current medical practices are not taking new patients due to high demand.
Without a replacement, the community-built aged care centre will have to turn away new residents, unless they already have access to a GP.
Eloura currently houses 58 residents, but needs a minimum of 62 to remain viable, according to Quirindi Care Services (QCS) chair, Mike Lomax.
“Each resident in the facility is worth in the order of $100,000 a year – as we lose residents, we lose financial viability,” says Lomax.
The doctor’s departure means residents have been left with less than a month’s worth of medication. Without a GP, these prescriptions cannot be renewed.
Many rural communities across Australia have been struggling to attract doctors to work in their towns, while doctors often feel trapped by a moral obligation to fulfil the community’s essential medical needs.
Eloura general manager, Kim Riley, believes the situation is beginning to bite for the most vulnerable members of her community.
“When people come into aged care, they’re unable to remain at home, their family is in crisis, or they have such huge care needs that are unable to be met by the community,” Riley says.
“And we’re saying to them, yes, we have a bed – but at this time, unless you have a doctor, you can’t come in.”
“Imagine what impact that has on the older person, on the family.”
QCS has had to sell some assets to raise funds as a temporary solution.
“That gives us a stopgap to continue to operate the facility at a loss for the foreseeable future,” Lomax says.
“But at $2,500 [loss] a day, there’s a period out there where we’re just going to have to say we can’t continue.”
Lomax owns the now-vacant medical practice in Werris Creek, 20km away from Quirindi, used by the departing GP.
“I’m using that as an attraction to try and get a doctor into Werris Creek.”
Walhallow Aboriginal Health Corporation, based in Quirindi, has three GPs and two registrars, who are split between the three towns of Coledale, Caroona, and Quirindi. The practice manager, Eileen Goode, said that they did not just need another doctor, they needed “probably another four”.
Walhallow has been seeing whoever they can, whenever they can, but still could not keep up with demand.
“We have a lot of phone calls from non-registered patients saying ‘Can we come and see you? We can’t get into a doctor, our doctor’s not here any more – can you help us?’” Goode said.
“Unfortunately, a lot of those people we’ve actually had to turn away because we’re servicing around 5000.”
“One of the worst feelings in the world,” Goode says, “is turning someone away, sending them to a hospital who also doesn’t have a doctor.”
Goode’s experience means she understands the leap it takes to move to the bush, and that dealing with a backlog of patients in a rural practice meant that GPs could quickly burn out.
Quirindi’s pharmacist, Mena Shawky, said without local doctors, people would need to visit Tamworth more, which would mean they would do a lot more business in the bigger town.
“If they’re already in Tamworth, they would get their scripts done over there,” said Shawky.
Lomax has contacted all levels of government, but has yet to receive a reply from anyone except the Liverpool Plains mayor, Doug Hawkins, who met the Rural Doctors Network last week.
The Department of Health and Aged care said: “The Department has received communication from Mike Lomax … and will be in contact to discuss the situation and provide support and assistance if necessary.”
Hawkins and council general manager, Jo Sangster, said the need was not to get a locum or doctors who would leave after a year or two, but GPs who wanted to live, not just work, in the Liverpool Plains.
“The first two or three questions when you go somewhere and sell the area, which I do quite often, are about the health facilities, the education facilities, and the lifestyle facilities,” Hawkins said.
The council is planning to launch a campaign to attract doctors, for fear of current residents of both Eloura and the wider shire moving away permanently.
“A lot of people go into medicine because they want to help their community,” Sangster said.
“We can guarantee that if you come and work as a GP, in our community, you will be part of our community. You will know your patients, you will develop close bonds – and you will be valued by this community.”
Tom Plevey is a freelance journalist based in Tamworth, NSW.
