Latest news with #TaraHamilton
West Australian
22-07-2025
- Health
- West Australian
Northampton Doctors Surgery closure: Crisis talks under way as locals label decision ‘kick in the guts'
Northampton locals say the imminent closure of their only GP clinic is a 'kick in the guts' that leaves them vulnerable and facing at best a 100km round trip to see a doctor. Northampton Doctors Surgery, run by private company MediBloom, will shut its doors at the end of the month, with the closure blamed on low Medicare rebates and difficulty recruiting doctors. It's understood council officials met with GP clinic representatives on Tuesday for crisis talks. In a social media message to patients on Friday, Dr Tara Hamilton said Medicare funding changes from July 1 made it 'impossible to sustain the practice'. 'I have explored every option, and this is not a decision we've made lightly,' she said. Dr Hamilton said the surgery had been trying unsuccessfully for four years to recruit another GP, even from abroad, but that Northampton was in a 'uniquely challenging position'. She said it was a town that was too remote to attract staff, but not remote enough to qualify for support programs. Patients were late last week informed of the news, handed their health records and told to seek alternative healthcare options. From next month, the closest GP will be in Geraldton, 50km away, where many clinics are already stretched or at capacity. Northampton resident Sam Smith said the impact of the closure would be widespread in the town. 'I was a chief fire control officer here, my wife was a senior ambulance officer. We've done a lot while we've been here 20 years. It's like a kick in the guts that they'll say, 'oh well, we're not gonna supply a doctor',' Mr Smith said. 'It's going to affect a lot of people. In town we've got the Pioneer Lodge which has got a lot of elderly and retired people in there, if we go to Geraldton we will have to find a doctor that we can go to, I'm sure they're under the hammer . . . we might not even be able to get in, so what do we do when we want a prescription or some advice? 'The farmers and people further out, like at Horrocks, they're going to have a long drive to go to Geraldton, they might be driving well over 150 to 200km to go and get a script or see a doctor, it's ridiculous.' Geraldton woman Kandie Thorpe said the decision leaves her parents' plan to live out their retirement in Northampton up in the air. 'My parents retired and selected a house within walking distance of the surgery so they would have easy access, whether they could no longer use a car and had to use a mobility scooter,' she told 7NEWS Regional. It's understood the Shire of Northampton provided incentives to support the local doctor's practice, including a low-lease surgery, a house and up to $600 a week in travel assistance. Geraldton MLA Kirrilee Warr said she would be advocating for a 'positive solution' for Northampton, concerned those who were physically unable to travel to Geraldton may miss out on basic health care. 'Regional communities require doctors to service their local areas, and it's deeply concerning to hear Northampton is losing its only doctor,' she said. 'It is clear more needs to be done to support rural doctors to ensure they remain situated within their local communities. 'I'll be raising this urgently at every level of government to advocate for a solution.' Northampton shire president Liz Sudlow said the closure was 'very disappointing' and a blow to the town, despite years of council support for health services. 'The Shire of Northampton has worked for many years to assist in the provision of health services for the people of our communities,' she said. 'We have contributed to travel payments to help support doctor travel. We currently support a stay-in-place health program in Kalbarri.' Geraldton GP and Panaceum Group director Dr Ian Taylor said this 'awful' situation was another example of the slow but steady demise of WA country towns. 'I'm obviously concerned for the health impact, particularly for the elderly and people with chronic disease, but also for the town itself,' he said. 'It's not just the elderly — it's people with young families and children. If they haven't got access to a doctor up there, then why would you live there? 'It's just another nail in the coffin of country towns trying to survive.' While Geraldton clinics will try to fill the gap for Northampton residents, Dr Taylor said they were already stretched. 'I'm not certain that the doctors in Geraldton — or practices in Geraldton — have got the capacity to fill in, even on a temporary basis,' he said. Dr Taylor said it had become almost impossible to attract doctors, especially fully qualified ones, to regional and remote towns. 'So what they rely on is senior registrars — general practitioners in training. These need supervision, and the big problem we have is the lack of supervisors to assist. It's a Statewide problem, and unfortunately, Northampton is copping it,' he said. Dr Taylor accused the Federal Government of not 'pulling their weight' when it came to GPs in small WA towns. 'To me, it is disgraceful, it's outrageous, that towns throughout WA have to rely on ratepayers and their local government to support general practice, which is a Federal responsibility,' he said. 'There needs to be something done to support the single-doctor practices in country towns that must have a doctor to be able to function.' City of Greater Geraldton mayor Jerry Clune said he felt sorry for the Northampton community. 'To lose a medical service is very disappointing and it puts a bit of stress on the community as well knowing that you're 45 minutes to an hour away from getting that medical attention if needed,' he said. 'It also pushes a fair bit of stress on local government because there's an expectation from the community for local government to fill the gaps that are left by Federal Government ultimately to provide those services to the community. 'It falls unfortunately to local governments to pick up the tab quite often when this is obviously a Federal Government issue.' The city has previously put incentives in place to retain Mullewa's GP. 'We feel it in Mullewa where we do our best to make sure we have a GP and if you get them, you've got to treasure them and do your best to keep them,' he said. Mr Clune said the impact would be 'far-reaching' and could lead to people leaving Northampton. 'It will flow through obviously to the bigger regional areas so Geraldton will pick up the slack that is there if a service is not replaced,' he said. 'People like to remain in the community and if the medical services aren't available then obviously quite often they're forced to leave, and it's just another sort of slow drain on a community that doesn't need to lose people.' According to the 2021 census, the Northampton local government area had a population of 3227 people, with more than 40 per cent aged 60 or over, and nearly half living with one or more long-term health conditions.
ABC News
21-07-2025
- Health
- ABC News
Low Medicare subsidies and staffing issues blamed for Northampton GP clinic's closure
Residents and businesses in Northampton in Western Australia's Midwest are shocked and in limbo over the announcement its only GP clinic will close. GP Tara Hamilton, who runs Northampton Doctors Surgery, shared the news on social media on Friday, announcing the practice would shut its doors at the end of July. She said minimal Medicare rebates and a lack of staff had made business "impossible to sustain". "Despite ongoing efforts for the past four years, I have been unable to recruit a doctor — locally, nationally or internationally — to continue serving our wonderful town," Dr Hamilton said. At the last federal election, the Albanese government pledged to make nine out of 10 GP visits free by the end of the decade. But the Royal Australian College of General Practicioners said increased Medicare rebates due to begin in November were unlikely to keep struggling rural clinics afloat. Kandi Thorpe's parents, who are in their 70s, retired to Northampton and bought a house within walking distance of the surgery. Ms Thorpe said the announcement came without any warning for the town's 1,000 residents. "People like my parents, that made a plan so that they could stay in their hometown." Once the clinic is shut, the closest town with doctors is 50 kilometres away in Geraldton. Ms Thorpe's mother cannot drive and her father is due to undergo knee surgery in the coming weeks. "So they're now looking at how do they get to Geraldton regularly to see a GP for all of their medical needs," she said. "There is no regular affordable public transport from Northampton to Geraldton." Northampton resident of 25 years Bec Reynolds said the shock closure was "sad for the whole community". Ms Reynolds said if people had to travel to other towns for medical services, other local businesses would also lose customers. "Obviously for the pharmacy [in Northampton], I think this will have a big effect," she said. "If we're down in Geraldton then I'll just drop in and grab a script while I'm down there because it makes sense." But Ms Reynolds said not everyone had the ability to travel. "There's quite a large aging population here so they use it for things like blood tests and I know not all of them can drive to Geraldton," she said. Royal Australian College of General Practitioners regional chair Michael Clements said the federal government's current level of Medicare investment was forcing GPs to close their doors. "We've had many years of frozen rebates and even though the government has started investing in Medicare again, the current rebates are too small to be able to run a viable practice," he said. "There are some rebate changes coming in on November 1, but even those are probably not enough for many rural practices to remain open. Dr Clements said Northampton Doctors Surgery's closure was symptomatic of an Australia-wide issue with how services were funded. "For the federal government, the levers are quite few and there aren't many ways of actually targeting small towns," he said. "And there aren't many ways of tailoring the Medicare system to towns like Northampton. "So we have state government and local governments needing to step in to make the service viable." In a written statement, state Health Minister Meredith Hammat said the WA government "continued to advocate" to the federal government for "more support for GPs, particularly those in regional and rural Western Australia". Northampton Shire president Liz Sudlow described the surgery's closure as "very, very disappointing". She said the shire provided a low-lease surgery and house for a doctor to support the service. In 2023, the shire responded to fears the surgery may close by implementing $600 travel subsidies for doctors. A spokesperson for the federal Department of Health said there were a range of "targeted programs to provide incentives for doctors" to move to or remain in regional areas. Panaceum Group operates a number of medical practices in Geraldton, which has a population of about 40,000. Director Ian Taylor said services in Geraldton were also stretched. "It's very difficult for practices in Geraldton, for example, to take up the slack [from Northhampton]," he said. "We are relatively under-doctored ourselves at times and it can be quite busy." He echoed that attracting doctors to the regions was a challenge. Although policy and funding for medical care are primarily a federal government responsibility, Dr Taylor said there needed to be a more holistic approach to funding.
