A HORSHAM medical clinic says it is exhausting every avenue to find staff after a doctor shortage halved its appointments capacity.
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Lister House Medical Clinic lost several doctors for various reasons earlier this year.
The clinic’s nurse manager Amanda Wilson said this had put an enormous amount of pressure on other doctors, with the number of people requiring appointments far outweighing the centre’s capacity.
“We have 400 to 500 people a day go through the clinic, and that was halved pretty much overnight,” she said.
“It has doubled the remaining doctors’ workloads.
“We have been putting appointments on hold ahead of time each day so people who are genuinely sick can get in.
“We’ve also had a few doctors working longer hours in evenings.
“We’ve employed locum services doctors to come and work for short stints.
“From a business perspective that’s a massive cost, but we will keep doing it because we want people to know we genuinely care, and want to look after people in the area as best we can.”
Mrs Wilson said finding permanent replacements had proved challenging.
“There were many reasons why we had a people leave, including retirement. It’s just unfortunate it all happened at once,” she said.
“We really have positions for four full-time doctors – if not five – that we could house.
“Rural Workforce Agency Victoria – which is a government-funded agency – is trying to find doctors for us as well.
“We are trying any way we can. We have never been tested like this before. We’ve been lucky that people have enjoyed the place and stayed.
“I don’t really understand why people won’t come to our region.”
Mrs Wilson said she had spoken to young junior doctors – including those part of the clinic’s placement program with Deakin University – about moving to the Wimmera.
“I’ve been trying to work out what the barriers are. Many say they have family in Melbourne, and it seems too hard,” she said.
“Public transport is an issue; if you could get to Melbourne via train it would be wonderful and help a lot.
“A large amount of country towns are facing similar issues in attracting doctors.
“There has got to be a system flaw somewhere.”
Mrs Wilson said attracting doctors had never been so difficult.
“We've been here since 1936 and there hasn’t really been a big problem getting doctors,” she said.
"There are peaks and flows of course, but now it’s harder than it has ever been before.”
Mrs Wilson said she had also looked at other ideas to attract people to the practice.
“I’ve been thinking of something like adopt-a-clinic, where a clinic in Melbourne might adopt a clinic in the country and rotate doctors, for maybe a month at a time,” she said.
“This needs to be a whole community recruitment effort to get doctors in our region. It might be businesses offering half-price on a couch if you move here, or pizza for a year.
“We also want people who genuinely care – we don’t want to just take anyone.”
Mrs Wilson asked customers to be patient while the clinic worked through recruitment.
“We are doing the best we can and trying to look after customers, and if people are genuinely sick they will be looked after,” she said.
“We encourage people need to plan ahead when it comes to routine appointments.
“People also have to take responsibility for their own healthcare. If they feel they need to be seen and they can’t get an appointment, they might have to go to another doctor, another town, or the emergency department.”
Mrs Wilson said Member for Mallee Andrew Broad and Member for Lowan Emma Kealy had been supportive of the clinic and its efforts to recruit doctors.
“Andrew had me up to Canberra, and I met with federal health minister,” she said. “I don't know what they can do, but I need to keep putting it in front of them.”