FOUR weeks have elapsed since the Newcastle Heraldrevealed plans to permanently shut a GP Access After Hours clinic at the Calvary Mater on Christmas Eve.
Facing a NSW government funding cut of about $500,000 a year, operator Hunter Primary Care also plans to reduce weekend services at Belmont and Toronto, and finish earlier on weeknights at the John Hunter and Maitland hospitals.
In politics, the squeaky wheel can sometimes get the oil.
To this point, though, a steady stream of adverse publicity - including a petition of more than 11,000 signatures - is yet to trigger any obvious second thoughts at state or federal levels.
Annual reports show GP Access received $7.74 million in total in 2019-20, with the bulk coming from Canberra in the form of federal grants and and Medicare payments.
As it's the state funding being reduced, so Canberra says the Hunter should look to Macquarie Street for answers.
If policy purity was the only issue here, such narrow reasoning might be sufficient response. But it's not.
The overriding consideration is finding the money to maintain the service, regardless of where the funding comes from.
NSW has used statistics from the last two years to justify its decision, as has Canberra in declining to intervene.
But COVID has played havoc with every health budget on the planet, and short-term trends should not be elevated over the proven ability of GP Access to service its patients, and to help the hospital system by treating less serious cases otherwise destined, unnecessarily, for accident and emergency wards.
To build on the observations of after-hours co-founder Dr Arn Sprogis in an article today by Sage Swinton, the public good is being sacrificed in the service of a bureaucratic turf war.
It may yet be - to roll out the squeaky wheel again - that funding pledges emerge whenever Prime Minister Scott Morrison names a federal election date.
But it should not - indeed, must not - come down to that.
JobKeeper kept Australia afloat during the lockdowns, but many billions went to recipients who would have fallen foul of the "claw back" mechanism that New Zealand built into its similar and earlier stimulus package.
These billions are no longer available to help the national cause, but the GP Access shortfall is loose change by comparison.
It must be found.
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