An after-hours home doctor service "not sure about our future" in Tamworth three months ago has doubled its patient numbers and achieved its goal of joining forces with a general practice.
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The 13CURE service now sees 400 people a month and plans to add two new doctors to its roster, business development manager Aamer Shahzad Gill said.
Mr Gill said it had secured a medical deputising agreement with CBD general practice My GP Tamworth.
"They are lovely people and I'm really happy," he said.
"We are now looking at engaging more doctors, because demand is increasing as more and more people are knowing about it."
The Leader reported in May 13CURE was "finding [it] hard to sustain and provide services in Tamworth" due to marketing restrictions.
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Such services cannot operate in competition with business-hours general practices and are banned from advertising to consumers.
"Now that we have got a formal arrangement with a general practice, I hope that more will also follow suit," Mr Gill said.
My GP Tamworth has extended opening times, but practice principal Casey Sullivan said this would provide "continuity of care for our patients" out-of-hours.
"When we started to hear that the home doctor service was struggling to get enough patients, we thought: 'This is a service that we definitely need in Tamworth' and we saw it as a way that we could support them," Dr Sullivan said.
"Tamworth desperately needs the home doctor service as an alternative to the emergency department, which is already doing such a wonderful job."
Practice manager Rick Sullivan said patients of 13CURE could also choose to have their records sent to My GP for later follow-up.
Staffing plans
Mr Gill said 13CURE was staffed by one fly-in, fly-out doctor from Melbourne, but was advertising for more staff.
It is inviting general practitioners, resident medical officers or registrars to apply for a position.
Mr Gill said this would prevent a repeat of times when there had been a temporary gap in services due to the doctor taking leave.
"We were in doubt; we were not very much hopeful about continuing our service in Tamworth - and now we have hopes ... about investing more and organising more doctors," he said.
Carolyn Millet
Based at The Northern Daily Leader, Tamworth, and Namoi Valley Independent, Gunnedah. Covering general news and features on community, council, arts, business, health, education, entertainment and rural matters.
Based at The Northern Daily Leader, Tamworth, and Namoi Valley Independent, Gunnedah. Covering general news and features on community, council, arts, business, health, education, entertainment and rural matters.
