Northampton Doctors Surgery closure: Crisis talks under way as locals label decision ‘kick in the guts’

Northampton locals say the imminent closure of their only GP clinic is a “kick in the guts” that leaves them vulnerable and facing at best a 100km round trip to see a doctor.

Northampton Doctors Surgery, run by private company MediBloom, will shut its doors at the end of the month, with the closure blamed on low Medicare rebates and difficulty recruiting doctors.

It’s understood council officials met with GP clinic representatives on Tuesday for crisis talks.

In a social media message to patients on Friday, Dr Tara Hamilton said Medicare funding changes from July 1 made it “impossible to sustain the practice”.

“I have explored every option, and this is not a decision we’ve made lightly,” she said.

Dr Hamilton said the surgery had been trying unsuccessfully for four years to recruit another GP, even from abroad, but that Northampton was in a “uniquely challenging position”.

She said it was a town that was too remote to attract staff, but not remote enough to qualify for support programs.

Patients were late last week informed of the news, handed their health records and told to seek alternative healthcare options. From next month, the closest GP will be in Geraldton, 50km away, where many clinics are already stretched or at capacity.

Northampton resident Sam Smith said the impact of the closure would be widespread in the town.

“I was a chief fire control officer here, my wife was a senior ambulance officer. We’ve done a lot while we’ve been here 20 years. It’s like a kick in the guts that they’ll say, ‘oh well, we’re not gonna supply a doctor’,” Mr Smith said.

“It’s going to affect a lot of people. In town we’ve got the Pioneer Lodge which has got a lot of elderly and retired people in there, if we go to Geraldton we will have to find a doctor that we can go to, I’m sure they’re under the hammer . . . we might not even be able to get in, so what do we do when we want a prescription or some advice?

“The farmers and people further out, like at Horrocks, they’re going to have a long drive to go to Geraldton, they might be driving well over 150 to 200km to go and get a script or see a doctor, it’s ridiculous.”

Geraldton woman Kandie Thorpe said the decision leaves her parents’ plan to live out their retirement in Northampton up in the air.

“My parents retired and selected a house within walking distance of the surgery so they would have easy access, whether they could no longer use a car and had to use a mobility scooter,” she told 7NEWS Regional.

It’s understood the Shire of Northampton provided incentives to support the local doctor’s practice, including a low-lease surgery, a house and up to $600 a week in travel assistance.

Geraldton MLA Kirrilee Warr said she would be advocating for a “positive solution” for Northampton, concerned those who were physically unable to travel to Geraldton may miss out on basic health care.

“Regional communities require doctors to service their local areas, and it’s deeply concerning to hear Northampton is losing its only doctor,” she said.

“It is clear more needs to be done to support rural doctors to ensure they remain situated within their local communities.

“I’ll be raising this urgently at every level of government to advocate for a solution.”

Northampton shire president Liz Sudlow said the closure was “very disappointing” and a blow to the town, despite years of council support for health services.

“The Shire of Northampton has worked for many years to assist in the provision of health services for the people of our communities,” she said.

“We have contributed to travel payments to help support doctor travel. We currently support a stay-in-place health program in Kalbarri.”

Geraldton GP and Panaceum Group director Dr Ian Taylor said this “awful” situation was another example of the slow but steady demise of WA country towns.

“I’m obviously concerned for the health impact, particularly for the elderly and people with chronic disease, but also for the town itself,” he said.

“It’s not just the elderly — it’s people with young families and children. If they haven’t got access to a doctor up there, then why would you live there?

“It’s just another nail in the coffin of country towns trying to survive.”

While Geraldton clinics will try to fill the gap for Northampton residents, Dr Taylor said they were already stretched.

“I’m not certain that the doctors in Geraldton — or practices in Geraldton — have got the capacity to fill in, even on a temporary basis,” he said.

Dr Taylor said it had become almost impossible to attract doctors, especially fully qualified ones, to regional and remote towns.

“So what they rely on is senior registrars — general practitioners in training. These need supervision, and the big problem we have is the lack of supervisors to assist. It’s a Statewide problem, and unfortunately, Northampton is copping it,” he said.

Dr Taylor accused the Federal Government of not “pulling their weight” when it came to GPs in small WA towns.

“To me, it is disgraceful, it’s outrageous, that towns throughout WA have to rely on ratepayers and their local government to support general practice, which is a Federal responsibility,” he said.

“There needs to be something done to support the single-doctor practices in country towns that must have a doctor to be able to function.”

City of Greater Geraldton mayor Jerry Clune said he felt sorry for the Northampton community.

“To lose a medical service is very disappointing and it puts a bit of stress on the community as well knowing that you’re 45 minutes to an hour away from getting that medical attention if needed,” he said.

“It also pushes a fair bit of stress on local government because there’s an expectation from the community for local government to fill the gaps that are left by Federal Government ultimately to provide those services to the community.

“It falls unfortunately to local governments to pick up the tab quite often when this is obviously a Federal Government issue.”

The city has previously put incentives in place to retain Mullewa’s GP.

“We feel it in Mullewa where we do our best to make sure we have a GP and if you get them, you’ve got to treasure them and do your best to keep them,” he said.

Mr Clune said the impact would be “far-reaching” and could lead to people leaving Northampton.

“It will flow through obviously to the bigger regional areas so Geraldton will pick up the slack that is there if a service is not replaced,” he said.

“People like to remain in the community and if the medical services aren’t available then obviously quite often they’re forced to leave, and it’s just another sort of slow drain on a community that doesn’t need to lose people.”

According to the 2021 census, the Northampton local government area had a population of 3227 people, with more than 40 per cent aged 60 or over, and nearly half living with one or more long-term health conditions.