Upper Yarra movers and shakers celebrating the $600,000 funding announcement are, from left, Glennice Mavers, Mal Gowing, Maureen Halit, McEwen MP Fran Bailey, Jeff Isaac and Jaqui Hall.By Kath Gannaway
MORE than two years of lobbying for an after-hours medical service has finally paid off for Upper Yarra residents with McEwen MP Fran Bailey on Friday announcing $600,000 funding to establish an after-hours practice in Yarra Junction.
Ms Bailey said the Eastern Ranges GP Association (ERGPA) had agreed to provide an after-hours general practitioner (GP) service for the region.
The provision of the service has been a high priority for community and welfare groups since the after-hours service most people believed would be set up in the Upper Yarra was instead opened in Healesville in 2005.
An after-hours clinic was one of the major priorities identified by community members at a Community Building Initiative (CBI) forum earlier this year.
Bernadette Douglas of the CBI and Bendigo Community Bank Committee chair Jaqui Hall were given the job late last year of pulling the submission to the Federal Government together.
Ms Hall said the outcome was fantastic.
“This is what the township really needs and wants,” she said. “It has been a very long time coming but we know it had to go through those processes and it was never going to be easy.”
Ms Hall said she and Ms Douglas were representing community groups working for Upper Yarra communities – Millgrove Residents Action Group (MRAG), the Upper Yarra CBI and Upper Yarra Community Voice.
“Bernadette and I have been working on behalf of those groups to get the submission in and to find a way to get the end result,” Ms Hall said.
Ms Douglas welcomed the announcement, which she also said provided an outcome for the Upper Yarra communities.
“I would hope we would have more allied health involvement in the future,” she said.
Ms Bailey said the funding delivered on phase two of delivering after-hours GP services for the Yarra Valley.
“This means that we have secured, with the help of our local communities, $1.24 million to provide after-hours GP services for our Yarra Valley,” she said.
Ms Bailey said the ERGPA was confident it could get an overseas-trained GP to run the service.
She said the ERGPA would run the service from an existing medical practice in Yarra Junction.
“My thanks to our local communities, who have tirelessly worked with me in never giving up to achieve this important service, especially Mel Gowing, Bernadette Douglas, Jaqui Hall and Geoff Vickers,” Ms Bailey said.
“This has been a real community team effort and I certainly couldn’t have continued to fight for the funding without their support.
“This investment will ensure as many people as possible in the Upper Yarra will have access to high-quality care and more convenient GP services after hours.”
Ms Hall urged Upper Yarra residents to help make the service work once it was set up.
“It is up to the public now to make use of this after-hours service,” she said.
“People have asked for it and it’s up to the community to make use of the facility provided.”
There was a sense of relief also that the much-needed and hard-fought for service was not reliant on the vagaries of politics.
“The one good thing for us now is it is not determined by the election. It is going to happen regardless,” Ms Hall said.
