Horsham's Lister House Medical Clinic doctor shortage comes to an end

Lister House Medical Clinic has been without a full-house of doctors since losing several doctors for various reasons over two years ago. 

The clinic had four full-time doctor positions – if not five – vacant in 2017. 

The clinic’s nurse manager Amanda Wilson said the team are “excited” to have finally have a full-complement of doctors, which will relief an enormous pressure from the current doctors. 

Related: Special coverage | Wimmera doctor shortages

When the practice lost its doctors two years ago, its appointments capacity halved and effectively doubled the workloads of its remaining doctors. 

“We had the same amount of patients wanting to come through with less than half the amount of appointments available,” she said. “Not only could people not get in, but they couldn’t follow up on results, procedures or medication that they had.

“The work load double for the doctors who were here trying to cope with the load that was created by the other doctors.” 

Related: Wimmera doctor shortage, battle to attract staff 

Not only did the doctor shortage put more pressure onto the clinic’s doctors, but the Wimmera Base Hospital’s emergency department also felt the strain. 

“The biggest pressure from the shortage was that it pushed patients onto the emergency department when they could not get an appointment, but felt like they needed to be seen in a short time-frame,” Mrs Wilson said.

“The emergency department quickly became overrun and overload as well.” 

Related: A Horsham clinic welcomes new doctors 

Mrs Wilson expects the pressure to slowly shift since the new doctors have arrived. 

“It will change slowly because people still want to see what they consider their family general practitioner, but the most important part is their medical file,” she said. 

“People need to be reassured that the doctors are there in a professional, medical matter and they can still sit down with patients and discuss their next lot of health care.” 

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