Health experts are questioning whether a new Primary Priority Care Centre announced for Mildura will be adequately staffed to ease the burden on hospital resources and address the region's GP shortage.
The Victorian government announced a total of 25 centres would be open for up to 16 hours a day across the state, providing free care for urgent, non-critical conditions such as mild infections, fractures and burns, as well as diagnostic services such as pathology and medical imaging.
The announcement comes following the closure of Mildura's Tristar Medical Group clinic in August — and during a shortage of GPs across regional Victoria.
Rural Doctors Association of Victoria president Rob Phair said there were a lot of unanswered questions, including where the staff would come from and whether they would be offered an attractive wage.
"It doesn't matter how much money you've got, if you don't have the staff or the infrastructure, it doesn't help solve the problem," Dr Phair said.
"We are going to have to find new funding models beyond Medicare to help make general practice a viable option."
Member for Northern Victoria Mark Gepp said in a statement that existing GP clinics were being commissioned as PPCCs, to be staffed by a general practitioner, nurses and reception staff.
"These clinics will deploy their existing workforce to staff the PPCC and will work closely with their Primary Health Network to ensure a sustainable workforce model," he said.
Strain remains on local health services
Health services in the northern Mallee were put to the test in winter by a shortage of doctors and a surge in COVID-19 cases.
Mildura Base Public Hospital CEO Terry Welch said despite conditions improving, there was still pressure on both the health service and the level of GPs in primary health.
"There are still critical shortages — I hear from a lot of people about long wait times (and) GPs are heavily overworked," he said.
"We will always need more and we will need to think about adaptive ways to deliver healthcare into the future."
Mr Welch said that when it came to hospital staff, he was delighted with recent recruitment in the region.
"It doesn't help in terms of the GPs shortage, we don't run any GP services — but I would love to be able to support additional recruitment and programs that might be coming to help in that space."
