A world-renowned local doctor has stepped up to the challenge of recruiting GPs to Melbourne’s west by opening a new medical “one-stop shop” in its industrial heartland of Altona North.
Dr Mukesh Haikerwal will open Circle Health on Sunday on the site of the old bowling alley in Blackshaws Road.
The centre will have a medical practice, pharmacy, dentist, pathology, psychologists, physiotherapists and 13 specialist medical consulting rooms.
Dr Haikerwal, who resigned as chairman of the World Medical Association to focus on the new clinic, said the multimillion-dollar venture was conceived and funded by himself and eight partners, mainly GPs.
He has previously warned that Hobsons Bay’s GP crisis would worsen because of the ageing population and the difficulty of attracting GPs to the west.
“The number of medical practitioners has not increased,” he said.
“Retiring practitioners have not been replaced. Recruitment to the area is hard in an industrial suburb.
“We want to recruit and train students, trainee and qualified GPs to retain them in the area. This enterprise is very much a personal effort of the practitioners from the area to the area,” he said.
“The goal of Circle Health is to provide GP, other specialist and allied healthcare services in an all-encompassing health environment, conveniently located under one roof.”
Dr Haikerwal, who is moving from the Circle Surgery in Millers Road, said it had been hard to find a suitable site for the new centre.
“It’s very much about keeping services in the area for the area, so that people still have access to it,” he said.
“The difficulties you have when you build are things like council regulations for parking, so you have to have ample parking.
“The other part that you have to deal with is that people have to want to come and work here in the west – it’s always seen as a bad business decision.
“So I want to make the facilities very attractive so that people want to work there … and attract other disciplines there as well.
“And then of course, for the patient … there’s buses there, plenty of parking, easy access, disabled access.”
The new centre at 230 Blackshaws Road opens at noon on Sunday, with a public tour.
