PARENTS and children will be forced into "over-crowded emergency departments" should Newcastle's after hours GP services cut times and close clinics, the Hunter GP Association says.
The "much-loved and valued" GP Access After Hours, run by Hunter Primary Care, intends to close its Calvary Mater clinic on Christmas Eve and reduce its operating hours in the new year after a drop in funding.
Chair of the Hunter GP Association, Dr Fiona Van Leeuwen, said GP Access After Hours was "the best, the cheapest and the most accessible" model of after hours care available. De-funding it was short sighted, at best.
"It prevents the emergency departments being clogged up by work GPs should be doing - and this is especially important as COVID cases rise and hospital costs escalate," she said.
Dr Van Leeuwen warned the service would "die a quiet death" and leave the Hunter community "in the lurch" without sustainable funding.
"Because the state government funds hospitals, and local health districts and the federal government funds community and GP care, both state and federal governments must collaborate to jointly support and fund this," she said. "This care must not be abandoned."
In an open letter, Hunter GP Association called on the community to lobby the state and federal governments to restore adequate funding to the "precious service", inviting supporters to sign federal MP Sharon Claydon's petition, which had gathered more than 9,200 signatures.
Hunter Primary Care chief, Brenda Ryan, confirmed remaining services would be stretched with the closure of the Calvary Mater clinic and reduced operating hours. She said that once their appointment allocations were exhausted, patients would be redirected to the region's emergency departments.
They had not raised their funding concerns earlier because they did not want to jeopardise negotiations.
"It had been, and remains, our hope that we might avoid service reduction," she said.
"We have worked tirelessly to rectify this problem, and we could have communicated it earlier, but we were hoping we wouldn't end up in this situation."
GP Access's activity had not "diminished" with the rising availability of other private after hours GP services. But COVID-19 had impacted demand for the service.
"We fully expect that activity to resume to near normal levels now that lock down is over," she said. "A lot of after hours activity could be generated through community sports, where people have injuries, and where people are going out and about and have accidents out of hours."
In its letter, Hunter GP Association said the after hours service had provided "well over a million" consultations to the region. It had been a "God-send" - particularly for parents with sick or injured children.
"Static funding from successive federal governments, the failure of successive federal governments to adequately index Medicare rebates, and the withdrawal of funding support by the Local Health District indicate that all parties are at best short-sighted; and at worst, do not sufficiently value the after hours healthcare of Novocastrians," the letter said.
"Once clinics close, they will not open again. We are concerned that young parents and children will be forced into overcrowded emergency departments. This is the last thing we want when COVID-19 is on the loose."
