Mission Beach doctors to close

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 11 2019

A SMALL Far Northern town will be left with just one doctor at the end of next month.

The Mission Beach Medical Centre on Tully-Mission Beach Rd will close at the end of January, ending the 25-year tenure of owners Jamie Crowe and Karen McGuire.

While Dr Crowe will take up a new job at Tully Medical Centre, his wife, Ms McGuire, said the couple were forced into a corner thanks to a Medicare freeze which has capped the amount of money paid by the government for medical services and the dwindling number of doctors wanting to work in regional areas.

Tristar Medical’s Dickinson St practice will become the only clinic left at Mission Beach from February 2020.

“It’s too late to stop it happening but we want to speak out for other rural practices and small practices – something needs to be done,” Ms McGuire said. “Our overheads and our wages have continued to rise but the financial support from the government is decreasing to rural practices.

“It is hard for us to attract doctors – you need more than one or two, even three doctors, to get patients in and to make ends meet. We have a medical grad with us who sees 30 patients a day.

“Jamie has worked as a GP for 25 years here and we’ve been 23 years in this building.”

While Tully is only a short distance away, Ms McGuire said there was no way of transporting elderly patients to the clinic.

Mission Beach Community Association secretary Truus Biddlecombe agreed that was a critical issue. “We have an ageing population which doubles in the winter tourist season with elderly grey nomads and there is no public transport to go to the Tully Medical Centre, which will make it nearly impossible to get to Tully for the elderly,” she said.

Calling it a “personal blow”, Kennedy MP Bob Katter vowed to continue lobbying the government to make young doctors do a year of regional service after graduating.

“They must bond the graduates to the regions. The cost of a medical student is a million dollars and that gives them a license to earn half a million a year. So, if you’re in that position you should be prepared to give something back, that should be the deal,” he said.

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