Katherine GP closure raises concerns

PLANS for the closure of the last GP clinic in Katherine on 28 Oct shows the failure of current healthcare funding models, the Rural Pharmacy Network Australia (RPNA), believes.

Dr Peter Spafford announced the Gorge Health clinic will close at the end of Oct leaving one of the Northern Territory’s largest towns without a private GP service.

Responding to news of the impending closure of the clinic an RPNA spokesperson told Pharmacy Daily that pharmacists needed to be empowered to provided more services to cope with the loss of GP services in rural and remote areas.

“If a town the size of Katherine [population 10,000] cannot sustain a private GP practice what does this mean for the hundreds of smaller towns across the country?“the spokesperson asked.

“Pharmacists could and should be permitted, trained, and equipped to do more - this is certainly part of the solution - but ultimately what this closure points to is a failure of funding systems in rural areas.

“Funding models - and this applies to both the Medicare Benefits Schedule as well as the pharmacy remuneration system - that are transactional (fee-forservice), episodic, and dependent on volume do not work in areas with smaller populations.

“There are many communities at risk of losing more healthcare services if this issue is not addressed.”

Spafford told GP publication, 6minutes.com.au, that the decision to close was down to the clinic’s struggle to attract doctors to the town.

“It’s been on the cards for a few years now to be honest,” he said.