By Conor Burke,Josh Brine

Copyright abc

SA’s largest regional city will soon have its Urgent Care Clinic back, months after it was forced to close, but many locals are still having to travel several hours to see a doctor.

Mount Gambier’s Medicare Urgent Care Clinic (UCC) closed in June after the former operator, Paion Medical, entered liquidation.

Since then, all of the city’s GP clinics have also closed their books to new patients.

Mount Gambier man Maurice Watson, 78, drove the four-hour round trip to Warrnambool, Victoria, for a check-up after his regular clinic cancelled appointments due to the GP being unavailable.

“At one clinic I did fill in the forms but heard nothing after about four weeks, which is the main reason I went to Warrnambool.”

Mr Watson said he had “never before” had so much difficulty getting a doctor’s appointment in the city.

“The facilities in Victoria and Warrnambool just seem more open than they are in Mount Gambier,” he said.

Long-term planning needed

The local Hawkins Medical Clinic had been chosen to reopen the UCC in the coming months, with the UCC set to open seven days a week with extended opening hours.

While Australian Medical Association (AMA) SA president Peter Subramaniam welcomed the reopening, he said “long-term access to general practice needs to be delivered”.

Dr Subramaniam said the AMA believed funds for the “stop-gap” UCCs would be better used to strengthen general practice.

“Get more GPs into places like Mount Gambier, with its population of about 30,000, that needs easy access to general practice,” he said.

Dr Subramaniam said the organisation was advocating for further investment by the federal government into general practice.

‘Canary in the coal mine’

Local politicians have also taken the issue to federal parliament.

Member for Barker Tony Pasin has spoken about the issue in the chamber, and said he had written to Health Minister Mark Butler twice on the issue, inviting him to Mount Gambier.

Mr Pasin said he had heard of patients being directed to see GPs in smaller towns in the area, including Bordertown, about 180 kilometres away.

“I’m really grateful that the community of Bordertown has a strong GP network, but it’s disappointing to me that it’s stronger than Mount Gambier’s,” he said.

Mr Pasin said the city could be a “canary in the coal mine” for wider healthcare issues.

“We’re seeing GP shortages all over the country, but those shortages have been in remote or regional communities not cities like Mount Gambier,” he said.

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said the government was spending $8.5 billion on bulk-billed GP visits, more urgent care centres and “the largest GP training program ever”.

He said the Mount Gambier UCC saw more than 10,500 presentations before it closed.

“I absolutely value the work that our general practitioners do across the country,” he said.

“Urgent Care Clinics don’t replace the role of a normal GP.

“GPs tell me they like the variety of working in urgent care and many of them do it complimentary to their normal GP work.”