A Craigieburn medical centre is struggling to stay afloat amid flagged cuts to Medicare and sluggish patronage at the new Craigieburn Central.
Late last week Health Minister Susan Ley scrapped plans to impose a $20 reduction in the Medicare rebates for a short visit to the GP.
The move followed news that Labor and independent senators would overturn the bill when Parliament resumes next month.
But speculation about cuts to Medicare was enough to make the owners of Craigieburn Central Medical Centre fearful.
Craigieburn resident and practising nurse of 20 years Leanne Boase co-owns the practice with two doctors.
She said the federal government’s Medicare backdown was a “relief”, but any future changes made to the scheme would affect the viability of their business.
“We’re already running pretty lean as a new practice,” she said.
“We have minimal nursing hours and have minimised all operating costs, including staff, as much as we can.”
When talk of introducing a mandatory $7 co-payment on Medicare services began last year, Ms Boase cut back her hours until she was only working one day a week.
“I had to go and get a job. I couldn’t justify paying myself and I wanted to keep our staff.”
She said slow foot traffic in the new Craigieburn Central had exacerbated the problem.
“We anticipated our patient numbers to increase more quickly than they have,” she said.
“Now that business in the shopping centre is increasing, we can hope it does for us, too.”
Ms Boase said the current freeze on Medicare rebates until July 2018 added insult to injury.
“It’s not enough to maintain a modern, medical practice. Medicare is not keeping pace with the overheads,” she said.
According to Medicare data, 88 per cent of all doctor visits in the federal electorate of McEwan were bulk-billed.
More than 44,000 people have signed a petition created by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners that calls on the federal government to stop targeting GP patient services.
Ms Ley was in formal talks with the general practice community last week.
