Save GP Access After Hours petition ready to be tabled to federal parliament with more than 10,000 signatures

The Hunter's federal Labor MPs Sharon Claydon, Pat Conroy, Joel Fitzgibbon and Meryl Swanson, and Labor's candidate for the Hunter, Daniel Repacholi will come together on Friday at the Westlakes Community Health Centre in Toronto to present the petition which is set to be tabled in parliament next week.

It comes after The Herald reported that the GP Access Calvary Mater clinic will close completely on Christmas Eve and operating hours for clinics at the Belmont Hospital, John Hunter Hospital, Maitland Hospital, and Westlakes Community Health Centre will be reduced.

The clinics are operated by Hunter Primary Care. A range of factors have lead to the reduction, including fixed Commonwealth funding via the health network's After Hours program, the freeze in Medicare Benefits Scheme revenue, and demand slowing during COVID lockdowns.

The state and federal governments have pointed the finger at each other when asked who was responsible for the issue.

The petition calls on the Commonwealth Government to restore the service to its full operations immediately.

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"This service has been essential for the tens of thousands of local families who rely upon bulk-billing GP services to access the healthcare they need, when they need it," the Hunter MPs said in a joint statement.

"With so few bulk-billing GPs in the Lower Hunter region, any further loss of services will have a huge impact on families already faced with high out-of-pocket healthcare costs."

"It's unconscionable that the Morrison-Joyce Government thinks it's a good idea to cut access to primary healthcare, especially during a global pandemic."

The MPs said the service saved the health system up to $21.7 million in unnecessary emergency department presentations each year.

Hunter GP Association chair Dr Fiona Van Leeuwen said after hours medical care was "just as important as care at any other time of the day" and the reduction of the service "feels like the slippery slope of decline which we must not and cannot accept nor endure".

"We are concerned that decisions made with regard to funding after hours care may not serve us best," she said.

"Well managed after hours care saves lives, cost and workforce benefiting both daytime general practice care (federally funded) and the tertiary hospital services (state funded). Surely all funders can see the benefits of this system of care."

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