General News
18 February, 2025
Nightingale Clinic reopens its books with four additional GPs joining the ranks
Nightingale Clinic has reopened its books for new patients with four new general practitioner (GP) registrars joining the team.
After years without being able to take on new patients, the addition of four new GP registrars will allow new patients to attend the Nightingale Clinic. The Avoca clinic’s reopening is also being considered.
Changes in the GP Training Program, along with funding for more trainees has allowed the Nightingale Clinic to return to what they had done prior to the medical workforce shortage.
Dr Chris Pham will be doing four days a week in the clinic with additional training in Ballarat, Dr Daniel Bil will be working two days a week in Maryborough while working at Botanical Gardens Health in Castlemaine, and doctors Saif Al-Mulla and Noor Hussein will be doing a few days a week at the clinic while also doing anaesthetic work at the Maryborough Hospital.
Although the clinic will continue to train medical students and interns, GP registrars are different because they are able to see patients independently, with a GP supervisor available if advice is required.
According to Dr David Tynan, who retired from medical practice and contributes to the clinic’s management, there are a number of factors that led to their books being closed.
Over the last couple of years there was a shortage of applicants for GP registrar positions, which meant they tended to go to the city or larger regional areas.
“It’s been a problem for a lot of years. Both [Nightingale Clinic and Clarendon Medical Centre] have struggled getting enough GPs. That has meant for a number of years we have basically closed our books and stopped taking on new patients,” he said.
“It’s a problem all over Australia especially in rural and regional towns.”
Dr Tynan explained this meant more people had to be turned away meaning they had to go to bigger regional areas such as Bendigo and Ballarat. It also meant more people were going to urgent care who, if they needed a GP, meant they’d temporarily get moved out of the clinic.
“There’s been a lot of pressure over a lot of years. Pressures to see large numbers of people and in the past, especially older GPs, we tended to work stupidly long hours which is not safe and not good for the GPs health,” he said.
Before he retired it wasn’t unusual for Dr Tynan to work a 12-hour day, what he described as “average”, due to a responsibility felt for the community.
“Certainly people left because of the pressure and the difficulty of having to cope with after hours and emergency stuff as well.”
Dr Tynan hopes the addition of these four GPs is a positive change for the future, and he expects it will help short term, but its long term impact depends on a wide range of factors.
Considering Maryborough’s aging population Dr Tynan believes the demand on medical services may get worse.
“Our population is getting older, they’re living longer, they’re having more complex chronic medical conditions which takes more time and expertise to manage. Therefore, patients require more appointments and more time spent with them,” he said.
Among the new GPs is Saif Al-Mulla who has spent his professional career in regional areas due to the strong community feel.
“It’s very fulfilling. Living here, working here, having the little one go to daycare,” he said.
He encourages more GPs to come out to regional areas not only for the community but for the variety of work available.
“I think you feel like you’re doing more compared to city work. Here you’re more of a jack-of-all-trades, you’re a little bit of everything,” he said.