Health Boost for Cairns
The Minister for Health and Ageing, Nicola Roxon and Member for Leichhardt, Jim Turnour have signed an agreement with Balance! Healthcare to establish the $5 million Cairns GP Super Clinic.
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Joint Release
The Hon Nicola Roxon MP
Minister for Health and Ageing
Jim Turnour MP
Member for Leichhardt
20 May 2009The Minister for Health and Ageing, Nicola Roxon and Member for Leichhardt, Jim Turnour today signed an agreement with Balance! Healthcare to establish the $5 million Cairns GP Super Clinic.
The Cairns GP Super Clinic will operate from seven sites across Cairns, with the hub clinic located in a new three-storey building within a planned medical precinct in Edmonton, in the city’s south.
The clinic sites will have a hub-and-spoke structure. The hub will be augmented by one major spoke and four allied health spokes located in the Cairns area. An allied health spoke will be in Smithfield, north of Cairns.
The Edmonton Clinic will provide services from health professionals, including GPs, specialists, and allied health professionals such as physiotherapists and psychologists. It is expected that services including pharmacy, radiology, pathology, rehabilitation and dental will also be available.
The Minister who was in Cairns to address the 10th Rural Health Conference also announced that doctors from Trinity Beach to Gordonvale will benefit from the Rudd Government’s $134.4 million rural health workforce strategy package.
Under changes announced by the Rudd Government in the 2009-10 Budget, a doctor re-locating to Cairns and the surrounding suburbs from a capital city, will be eligible for a $30,000 re-location incentive for the first time and around $18,000 per year after working in Cairns for five years.
If doctors move from Brisbane or another capital city to Cooktown north of Cairns they will be eligible for a $60,000 re-location payment and will be paid $13,500 after their first year working in Cooktown. This yearly retention rate grows to $27,000 every year after they have been in Cooktown for five years.
The Cairns GP Super Clinic will benefit from these initiatives as Edmonton becomes a newly eligible town for these rural incentive payments.
The Minister for Health and Ageing, Nicola Roxon said that the Edmonton Clinic will have extended hours of service, seven days a week and will provide bulk billing services to all children under 16 years, health care card holders, seniors, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients and the financially disadvantaged.
Ms Roxon said, “The GP Super Clinic will build a strong relationship with the local area health service and become a more attractive place to work because of the Government’s changes to rural incentives.
“Today’s announcement by the Rudd Government follows community consultation in Cairns last year attended by about 70 health professionals and community members,” said Ms Roxon.
Member for Leichhardt, Jim Turnour welcomed the announcement today and said the people of the growing southern suburbs of Cairns would benefit from this new health infrastructure and the Government’s announcement to support rural doctors in our local community.
Mr Turnour said, “I’m pleased there was strong interest in the Cairns GP Super Clinic at both the community consultation I hosted last year and throughout the application process.
“The Edmonton Clinic will bring huge benefits to the people of Cairns, in particular the growing southern suburbs.
“And the changes in workforce incentives the Minister has announced today will make not only Edmonton a more attractive place to work, but every single community across my electorate of Leichhardt,” said Mr Turnour.
GP Super Clinics are an election commitment of the Australian Government – to provide primary health care services where they are most needed.
They are a key part of the Government’s agenda for fixing Australia’s health care system. As part of the Government’s Health and Hospital Reform Plan, $275 million has been allocated over five years, from 2007-08, to establish 31 GP Super Clinics in communities around the nation.
For all media inquiries, please contact the Minister's Office on 02 6277 7220.
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