The cost to ratepayers for a local GP in Gnowangerup is $400k per year, says shire president Kate O’Keeffe

The Shire of Gnowangerup is spending $400,000 a year to ensure the town has a local GP, a sum which represents 8 per cent of its rateable income, according to shire president Kate O’Keeffe. Gnowangerup is a member of a six-shire alliance which has combined to put pressure on the Federal Government to increase its financial assistance grants so rural councils do not have to top up local medical services with ratepayers’ money. The other shires involved in the National Local Government Rural Health Funding Alliance are Lake Grace, Kojonup, Jerramungup, Ravensthorpe and Narembeen. At a meeting of the Australian Local Government Association in Canberra in June, a motion presented by the alliance to increase the maximum grants to remote and very remote areas from $100,000 to $500,000 was passed unanimously. It’s now a matter of persuading the Federal Government to take notice. The shires will be meeting later this month in Lake Grace to discuss the next steps but have already engaged Caroline Robinson, former chief executive of the Wheatbelt Business Network, and her business 150Square to help with strategy. Cr O’Keeffe said the 8 per cent Gnowangerup spends is less than some other shires, whose bill reached up to 15 per cent. Her shire received the maximum Federal grant of $100,000 last year but was not guaranteed the same sum this time around. Others, she said, received as little as $30,000 while the total spent by all six on medical provision reached close to $1.5 million. The responsibility for primary health care rests mainly with the Federal Government, although the State Government could manage district hospitals – a situation which allowed them to blame each other for any shortcomings, suggested Cr O’Keeffe. Gnowangerup’s $400,000 cost of a GP includes $250,000 cash to allow the doctor to list the practice with the shire and make it financially viable. The rest of the money allowed the shire to provide a house and car. It also owned the practice building. “This is money we would like to be spending on other things,” Cr O’Keeffe said. The current GP is Dr Temitope Oni who has come to the town through Livingston Medical, a business which specialised in the provision of rural health services. Ms O’Keeffe said the business had come through a tender process after the town’s previous GP moved away. “We wanted the same GP every day, we wanted them to reside in the Gnowangerup town, be proficient in emergency medicine and provide a number of community hours,” she said. “The beauty of the Livingston model is they have many GPs so if ours goes on holiday, or is ill, they can provide cover. “If it’s a single provider they have to try and find a locum, which is really difficult.”