When Sandra Clifford woke up with a sore leg one day, she didn't think much of it. But a trip to the local chemist ended up saving her life.
The 41-year-old lives in the south-west New South Wales town of Wentworth, on the border of Victoria.
The town lost its only doctor in February and Sandra had been visiting Mildura for medical appointments, but when COVID-19 hit she stopped going.
"I put off going into Mildura to see the doctor due to the virus, not wanting to be in contact with anyone else," Ms Clifford said.
But what started out as a sore leg, turned very serious for the mother of five.
"I went to the chemist and [he said] he didn't want to scare me, but told me I should go to the hospital," she said.
Ms Clifford was immediately flown to Melbourne and had two operations to remove blood clots from her leg.
Doctors later told her she would have died had she not sought medical assistance that day.
"I was pretty fit and healthy, I worked the day before I came down with it so was good as gold — I didn't suspect it at all, it was a shock," she said.
Wentworth pharmacist, Alex Elfeki, said Sandra's close call was not uncommon in the town.
"We are seeing a lot of life-threatening situations going unnoticed," Mr Alfeki said.
"I can see the health of the community deteriorate since we lost our GP, because people are not getting that face-to-face appointment, so conditions are getting worse or going undiagnosed.
"Telehealth has been useful, but can only do so much."
Border restrictions concerning health professionals
With border restrictions now being enforced on the NSW and Victorian border, Mr Elfeki is worried people will become even more complacent with their health.
"I'm concerned that border restrictions will stop people from going to the doctors even if they have to," he said.
Resident Glenis Beaumont runs a not-for-profit community group to help attract a doctor to Wentworth.
"I don't think it's particularly hard to attract GPs to a community like this," Ms Beaumont said.
The group's aim is to secure a building that will be able to serve as a clinic for a potential GP.
Calls for government to do more
Ms Beaumont said Wentworth Council had several buildings that could serve as the facility, but that the idea had not received support from any tier of government.
"The difficulty is that it doesn't neatly fit into everyone's patch, apart from the local community, so Federal Government, State Government and local government have all, to some extent, said its not their issue," she said.
"So as a community we know its our issue because we are living and breathing the fact that we don't have a GP and haven't for many months now."
However the town's federal member and former health minister, Sussan Ley, said government is working on the issue.
"I'm concerned for the community, particularly in these cross border COVID-19 times, and we want to find a doctor and everyone is working to get this to happen," Ms Ley said.
