August 9, 2016
The Glendon Street Medical Centre in Kingaroy will be closing its doors on August 17, potentially leaving “thousands” of local residents without a GP.
Owner Michael Brown, an unsuccessful candidate at the mayoral elections earlier this year, made the announcement in a flyer distributed to clients this week.
Mr Brown wrote that he was making the announcement the surgery was closing “with a very heavy heart”.
He said he had received notice from the South Burnett Community Hospital Foundation to hand over possession of the building by September 1.
“They have only given a very unreasonable five weeks’ notice,” Mr Brown wrote.
“The reason stated by the solicitor is to ‘clear the land with a view, ultimately, to expand the Lady Bjelke-Petersen Community Hospital’.
“So yes, the rumours that the South Burnett Council and the South Burnett Community Hospital Foundation Board, including its members, have been seemingly spreading have now been confirmed true.
“At no time were we going to be closing. In fact, I have a new doctor who will be seeing patients this week.
“This doctor has very strong ties to the community and we planned to move premises in the first quarter of next year to ensure you had a better facility.”
South Burnett Council CEO Gary Wall told southburnett.com.au he believed Mr Brown had been given eight weeks notice to vacate the premises.
At no time had Mr Brown made any attempt to contact him or Mayor Keith Campbell about it.
He believed there were other premises available in Kingaroy which Mr Brown could have utilised if he wanted to continue his business.
He also said if Mr Brown had required extra time to relocate, that could have been arranged.
Mr Wall said an ongoing commercial dispute between the Council and Mr Brown had been resolved.
In his flyer, Mr Brown claimed Council – who are the landlords of the building – had done no maintenance on the building.
“Meanwhile, they have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the private facility next door and still nothing on this community-used facility,” Mr Brown wrote.
“Since the closure of Pulse Health, the Council have not maintained the grounds around the building like they have with the main building, they just mowed around us.”
Mr Wall said Mr Brown had been pushing Council to upgrade and expand the Glendon Street building for his business, but this was not under consideration by Council because it was an old wooden building.
The cost of renovating it would be too high, and it would be cheaper to demolish the structure.
Mr Brown wrote that he was “very disappointed” with the Board of the South Burnett Community Hospital Foundation, the South Burnett Regional Council and South Bank Day Hospital.
“At no time have any of those mentioned met with Glendon Street Medical to discuss or assist in a transition phase,” he wrote.
“I am heartbroken that thousands of patients are now without a doctor due to the Board wanting to clear the land for future expansion of the private hospital.
“We have patients from all demographics of the community from the homeless to professionals and have always bulk-billed children.”
Mr Brown wrote that “nurse Tania”, his partner Veronica and himself were in “emotional turmoil”.
“I have stood where you are standing today without a GP in this town,” he wrote.
“Eight years ago after my head-on truck accident, I too had no doctor for aftercare.
“This is why I reopened the GP practice, funded by my accident compensation.
“I and Veronica have volunteered our time for the profit for purpose (sic) GP practice to ensure you had access to a GP.
“It has been our honour to serve this community and be a part of your lives for the past four years.”
southburnett.com.au attempted to contact Mr Brown but he had not returned our call prior to publication.
Michael Brown campaigned against reopening the private hospital at the council election and wanted to expand the Glendon Street Clinic in the building. Sounds like sour grapes to me.
I don’t get it, you have been given notice to leave so why not just move into another premises ? All this big drama about closing down the practice, it seems far more likely to me that other there is another cause for shutting down
I was reliably informed around the end of June 2016 that patients of GSMC were being advised to start looking for a new GP as the practice would be closing down in the not too distant future. From that time to 1st September is approximately 8 weeks so it would appear that the advice of Gary Wall, SBRC CEO, that 8 weeks notice was given to Mr Brown’s business is correct.
Regardless of the reasons for the closure, the loss of a medical practice in Kingaroy is not ideal for the local community. Hopefully the situation will be remedied sooner than later especially for those persons affected by this closure.
The Queensland Government/Dept of Health has been advertising on a regular basis on TV lately that the Emergency department at hospitals is only for emergencies not the day to day illnesses many people suffer eg influenza, coughing etc. If that edict is enforced then that rules out attendance at a hospital for persons unable to find a personal GP for treatment as such. This could well become the situation for GSMC clients through no fault of their own.
There is only one medical centre building vacant and that is the old site of South Burnett Medical. However, the owners want to charge over 6 times the rent we currently pay and that is just not possible because we Bulk Bill most of our patients to assist the community.
Other vacant buildings are not zoned for a medical centre, do not have appropriate car parking or are inaccessible for Emergency services like the Ambulance, which is necessary in a medical centre.
The timeframe given to explore these alternatives requires months alone. Added to the timeframe is the fact that changing premises requires the doctors to reapply for new provider numbers and that cannot be completed until you have the new premises details. Provider numbers also take 4 to 6 weeks. Then the building needs to be accredited and cleared as safe for the community.
As to the date we were informed – the letter to us from the South Burnett Community Hospital Foundation Limited’s lawyers is July 14 and we received this via post on July 19 – well after the end of June. As our first information on our directive to vacate was in mid-July, leaving us 5 to 6 weeks to close by the time we got the letter, not 8 weeks as stated by CEO Gary Wall.
We were not given any option from the South Burnett Community Hospital Foundation Limited to negotiate.
I am appalled that the Council are pointing the finger at me in the media when in fact the South Burnett Community Hospital Foundation issued the notice to vacate stating they were clearing the land. Again I need to reiterate that the council has never been open to negotiations in the four years I have been in this premises.