At meetings called to oppose cancellation of General Practitioner (GP) medical and counselling services at three inner Melbourne clinics, patients and doctors spoke out. A well-attended meeting held on October 24 at Fitzroy Town Hall with more than 500 people was followed by a meeting at a Kensington school hall with nearly 400.
Patients and doctors at the three centres in Fitzroy, Collingwood and Kensington run by the community health organisation, cohealth, explained the important healthcare provided at the centres for vulnerable people who are homelessness, with severe mental health issues, are refugees or live in other complex social situations.
The threatened closures are a result of the gross inadequacy of federal government funding to the Medicare system.
Twenty-eight cohealth doctors published a statement, explaining, “The human cost of this closure will be profound. Many of us have seen our patients for 10, 15, 20 years. For some, that trusting relationship is their only stable support. Without it, where will they go? Who will manage their health, their medications, their crises?
“This is not about inefficient management. It’s about a Medicare system that simply doesn’t fund the care that complex patients require. The loss extends beyond patients. It deprives future doctors of the chance to train in “deep-end medicine”—the challenging, messy, deeply human work that reminds us why we became doctors. Once these services close, that pathway disappears.
“This is more than a financial decision. It is a decision about what kind of society we want to be. Do we turn away from those who are hardest to help, or do we invest in them because that’s what fairness looks like?”
At the Fitzroy meeting Carmel read out a statement by a cohealth patient, Susan, who is on oxygen and in a wheelchair. “Cohealth is a lifeline to me. I come to cohealth where I can see doctors, attend the pharmacy, see the nurses, the pathologist, podiatrist and even the diabetes clinic. It is so convenient for me to have all the services I need in the same place because I can’t use public transport … The Collingwood cohealth is just a short walk from my house. If it closes, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
Aisha who is a public housing resident and has been a cohealth patient for 20 years, said, “It’s not a clinic it’s a family. The nurses and doctors give up their life to serve the community.” Aisha explained that cohealth doctors had played a decisive role in saving the life of her unborn son, who is now 13-years-old.
WSWS reporters spoke to others at the meetings.
Ibrahim is president of a local community organisation based in Flemington and Kensington that advocates for refugees. He attended the Kensington meeting.
Ibrahim said, “We advocate and represent people from low-income families, refugees and migrants. And we have concerns about the closure because the centre was helping people who are new to the country, who are refugees. We want to advocate that the centre remains open to the public, and to the community. We have people who have been accessing care here for so long including elderly people. They rely on it, so we were shocked when we heard the news.
“We actually felt very welcome and very included in this community centre. When you’re new to the country and you don’t know many places or many people, this was a very friendly and welcoming place. We never felt any discrimination or any such things.”
Leonie and Judi also attended the Kensington meeting.
One of them noted: “I’ve been coming here since 1984. It’s a very convenient Medical Centre. It provides a lot of services. It initially had a lot more doctors, a lot more GPs and it was easier to make appointments. I’ve had little breaks where I’ve had to go and find other doctors because you can’t get an appointment now within two and a half to three weeks. I just think about the effect on the local community because there are lots of people still in whatever the equivalent of the housing commission is these days.
“There’s a lot of people who need the bulk billing [no patient fee] service. It’s really disappointing that it’s happening after all these years. Why can’t they just be funded better? They have the dental service and podiatry as well.”
Glenda said: “I’ve been a patient of cohealth since before it was cohealth. Before, when I lived in Collingwood, it was the Collingwood Community Health Centre and then the Fitzroy Community Health Centre and we put up with the merge and it turned into cohealth and now I’m at Kensington but still have ties to the others. My whole life they have taken care of my health and it’s just absolutely devastating. It’s something that I never thought we would have to fight. Especially as we have a federal Labor government, and a state Labor government and health is the jewel in their crown all the time.
“And here we go. They’re saying that the model doesn’t fit. But it is an effective model. My doctor helped me on the road to recovery with my mental health. I’ve been with her for 18 years. I’ve seen her through two pregnancies. She’s devoted her career to working in public health and they kick her aside like she’s nothing. And that’s effectively what they’re doing with the doctors.
“We’ve got a long-term Labor government in the state. Albo [Prime Minister Anthony Albanese] won on a landslide with health as a primary big issue. They said ‘we’re going to fix Medicare’ and then suddenly we’re facing closure. It just doesn’t add up.”
Glenda also commented on the state Labor government’s planned demolition of 44 public housing towers in Melbourne, which is being carried out in the interests of property developers. “It’s outrageous. You know, they’re more than just towers, they’re communities. People have lived there. They’ve grown their families there. I live in public housing here. I was in Carlton and Fitzroy and they’re knocking down the buildings where I was. You expect more from a Labor government.”
A cohealth GP at the Kensington meeting explained how difficult it would be for patients to find a new doctor. She said, “Of the surrounding practices, a few of them bulk bill, but I think 80 percent of our patients will not have anywhere to go. Some of the practices may be able to accept, I don’t know, 30 maybe. A lot of practices have closed their books anyway. That’s one part of the argument in terms of the emergency department being overloaded but in terms of their ongoing care they’ll be really worse off. I mean they do things like put people on Endone and opiates for acute pain.”
Carol has been attending cohealth in Kensington for about five years. She told us, “I used to accompany elderly people down there for their visits because they weren’t able to get there on their own. So then when I retired I rang to see if I could make an appointment for podiatry and they made an aged care assessment for me.
“The centre is good. It’s certainly necessary when you see the list of things that they do and I know one doctor who helps down here one or two days a week. See they’re going to move all those doctors.”
Rayaan said, “I came in 2013 and I was with Dr Catherine, my doctor. We feel like a family here. I moved to Broadmeadows in 2016 but still I was driving here. My four children come here and my husband. If they told me to make an appointment with another doctor, I don’t feel happy. Whatever I have, I share with them. I don’t know how I would trust another GP. It makes me worry.
“My son has very bad asthma. It’s like a family here. My neighbour is from Afghanistan and another from Somalia. You know, when you have the same doctor, the same face, you feel familiar and you don’t need to give any information again. And you feel comfortable. I came by boat to Australia. I was an asylum seeker. No one asked me for money. Sometimes if you have an emergency and you go to another GP they ask you for money.”