Ramahyuk forced to cut access to doctors

The local indigenous community stand to lose access to its regular doctors after Ramahyuck health service announced significant cuts to its medical services in Drouin.

Ramahyuck District Aboriginal Corporation ceo David Morgan said there would be no funded GP services running from the Drouin clinic as of June 30, or shortly later.

“The clinic itself is just not viable,” said Mr Morgan. “There’s not sufficient numbers to keep the clinic open and we don’t have funding.”

“This is something that we didn’t want to do, but we have no alternative for the viability of the organisation as a whole. It was a very difficult decision to make.”

Mr Morgan said the chronic care coordinator nursing role and a medical receptionist would still operate at Drouin, with scope for specialist visits to continue.

Other programs - such as Best Start, Justice Program, Baw Baw Parenting and Integrated Family Services will continue to operate from the clinic building as normal.

Whilst stating he didn’t wish to “pass the buck” onto previous management, Mr Morgan said the Drouin clinic opened in 2010 - “never had its own funding” and relied upon other Ramahyuck clinics.

Ramahyuck runs clinics in Morwell, Sale, Stratford, Loch Sport and Rosedale.

Mr Morgan said the Federal Government’s new funding model, set to be introduced in 2019, would cause further strain on the Drouin clinic.

“We don’t have enough patients here to be viable under that funding model,” he said.

Figures show 134 patients attended in February. This is not the number of contacts, with individual patients perhaps attending once or even five times.

Mr Morgan said the clinic had attracted up to 200 patients per month; occasionally even over 200. However, it normally was somewhere between 100 and 200 patients per month.

Following its decision on April 4, Mr Morgan said the advisory committee in Drouin was notified followed by staff who were spoken to individually.

A community meeting is planned for Friday.

He said Ramahyuck were currently in discussion with Drouin and Warragul clinics regarding patient transfers.

“We are making every effort to find other clinics to transfer patients to. We will be sending out letters to all patients in May with options for clinics to transfer to. We want…as little interruption to their medical care as possible.”

Asked about other Ramahyuck clinics across Gippsland, Mr Morgan said they have funding but “there will be changes”.