HORSHAM’S Lister House Medical Clinic has secured three new doctors.
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The practice lost several doctors for various reasons in early 2017, which halved its appointments capacity and effectively doubled the workloads of its remaining doctors.
The clinic’s nurse manager Amanda Wilson said securing people to fill some vacancies was exciting after many months of work.
“We have a few new doctors starting this year, who will be here for 12 months,” she said.
“There will be an increase in our staffing in the next few weeks, and we are filling the void with locums as well.
“We are still working with government agencies on our vacancies.
“Member for Mallee Andrew Broad been instrumental in helping us with that.”
The clinic is among many across the Wimmera that has struggled to attract general practitioners to fill vacant positions.
Other vacancies exist at Stawell, Ararat, Edenhope and Nhill, among other places.
Mrs Wilson thanked Lister House patients for their understanding while it found replacement doctors.
“They have been helpful working along with us,” she said.
“One thing this has shown is that we are really lucky to be where we are – we have great doctors in our area and a really good back-up with our hospital.
“If you are really sick, you will get looked after.”
Mrs Wilson will be among a group of Wimmera health service representatives to meet with Australia’s Health Minister Greg Hunt when he visits on Wednesday.