Thousands of Victorians with complex health needs who are also facing homelessness, trauma and family violence will be forced to find a new GP after the sudden announcement that services at three cohealth clinics will close.
Cohealth provides a range of integrated health and social support services across Melbourne, often at no cost.
A cohealth spokesperson said on Thursday that GP services will end at the Collingwood, Fitzroy, and Kensington sites in December. All other services such as allied health will also close at the Collingwood site in mid-2026, but will be relocated to the Fitzroy site.
More than 12,000 patients will be affected.
“This has been an extraordinarily difficult, but unavoidable decision,” the cohealth CEO, Nicole Bartholomeusz, said.
“These GP services cared for multiple generations of people, and we know the impact will be deeply felt.”
The decision was made due to “multiple, complex pressures including decades of underinvestment, ageing infrastructure, and a funding model that doesn’t match the reality of the need or the type of care that is required,” she said.
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A spokesperson for the federal health department described the move as “deeply disappointing”.
“We have requested the board reconsider its position,” the spokesperson said.
“The Department of Health and North Western Melbourne Primary Health Network has met with cohealth to identify possible solutions to improve financial sustainability, including through maximising Medicare Benefits Schedule billing.”
A Victorian government spokesperson said community health organisations play an “important role and we continue to provide them with significant funding”. They said $188m was invested last year to support the delivery of care across the state.
“We’ll continue to advocate to the commonwealth to address medicare rebates for patients with complex care needs.”
From November, Medicare Benefits Schedule changes will see additional funding go to clinics which bulk bill every patient. But a GP with the Collingwood cohealth clinic, Dr Cath Keaney, said these federal Medicare reforms were coming too late to save the clinics.
There were also structural issues affecting the buildings which were in desperate need of repair, she said, “with leaks in the roof and buckets catching water during storms”.
“The financial loss is compounded by the fact we are a multidisciplinary clinic, and some of the administration, IT and staffing costs have been shared by the allied health services that we offer,” she said. “Allied health funding has also been severely restricted, as the state is in belt-tightening mode. So we have a perfect storm of factors affecting us.”
That services were ending in December was particularly “harsh”, Keaney said. “It’s a high needs time for people with mental health concerns in particular.”
The Royal Australian College of GPs Victoria chair, Dr Anita Muñoz, called for the state government to “step up and save these clinics”.
“This is lifesaving healthcare,” she said.
The Greens MP for Richmond, Gabrielle de Vietri, who has long advocated for additional cohealth funding, said: “The writing’s been on the wall for years for cohealth.
“It’s indefensible that Labor is letting community health services collapse instead of investing in them at [a] time when we know people are struggling more than ever to afford basic healthcare.”
