A DOCTOR shortage in the inner-west is threatening the viability of a new community health centre.
Members of the Westgate Health Co-operative, which operates clinics in South Kingsville and Newport, are backing away from leasing a new centre at Laverton, saying it will be impossible to recruit up to 10 doctors as originally planned.
Co-op director Cornelius Chidlow said the medical centre, forming part of the $8.6 million Laverton Community Hub, would not be able to attract GPs even if its ‘district of workforce shortage’ status was intact.
Areas such as Maribyrnong and Hobsons Bay have long faced GP shortages, placing additional pressure on already over-stretched hospital emergency departments.
The federal government’s ‘areas of need’ classification — removed from Laverton and surrounding suburbs in February — would have allowed overseas GPs to be hired without fulfilling the 10-year moratorium (requiring that they work in areas with a shortage of GPs, mostly in outer suburbs and country areas).
Mr Chidlow said the not-for-profit group could not even recruit doctors at its other clinics in South Kingsville and Newport.
“One of the biggest game changers has been the removal of Laverton, along with all of Melbourne, from the ‘district of workforce shortage’,” he said. “We still have extreme difficulty in attracting GPs to service our existing membership. The proposed Laverton clinic will face similar problems.”
Under the proposed 15-year lease, the co-op would pay $15,000 in the first year.
In a letter to Hobsons Bay CEO Bill Jaboor, dated January 1, Mr Chidlow and fellow director Peter Kofoed state there is “a high probability of this venture failing, exposing the ratepayers of Hobsons Bay to the financial risk of having a defaulting tenant” and could cause the demise of existing clinics. Mr Kofoed said a notice of motion would be raised at the co-op’s October 18 annual meeting calling for it to cease plans to operate a medical clinic in Laverton.
