No doctor for Yarra Glen

By Kath Gannaway
Just two months after signing on to provide a GP service at Cameron House Clinic in Yarra Glen, the Yarra Junction Medical Centre has pulled out, ironically, due to the ill-health of principal practitioner, Dr Peter White.
The news devastated members of the Yarra Glen Medical Precinct Group who have worked relentlessly for the past two years to get a doctor for the town.
“We are all incredibly disappointed,” said YGMPG chairwoman Dorothy Barber last week.
“They didn’t close because of a lack of business, the doctors were seeing at least 20 people a day. We have established the need for a doctor in the town and we are not giving up on that,” she said.
Yarra Junction Clinic practice manager Alison Dajlan said they were also disappointed with the turn of events.
“We simply had to withdraw because of Dr White’s ill-health,” she said.
“We had such good support from the community and we believe it is a great place for us to have a clinic. We really want to help out over there and we’re devastated this has happened, especially at this time,” she told the Mail.
Ms Barber said the clinic – Cameron House – had been used since the bushfires as a base for volunteer therapists including counsellors, clinical hypnotherapists and psychologists.
“It has been thriving since the bushfires because we have picked up people who wouldn’t otherwise engage with the traditional services.
“(But) we want a GP; that’s the contract we have with the community. We raised the money to get a doctor, so we’re not giving up.”
Despite the determination Ms Barber said there was an urgent need to get the clinic onto a more secure financial footing.
The YGMPG is negotiating through the Victorian Bushfire Recovery and Reconstruction Authority (VBRRA) for funds to cover rent currently being ‘donated’ for bushfire counselling and other services.
“If we can get that rent coming in, we can hang on to the facility until we get a GP in there,” Ms Barber said.