Locals in the farming and mining town of Julia Creek, 600km from Townsville, have gone without a doctor for the past decade.
So keen is the local council to attract a GP that it’s now throwing in a brand-new, four-bedroom home for a doctor to live in – rent free.
The home is in addition to the attractive Queensland Health salary of up to $513,620, which is several hundred thousand dollars more than the average GP salary of $175,000, according to 2019-20 tax office data.
Julia Creek, which describes itself as “a small town with a huge heart”, is home to roughly 500 residents, with double that number living in the greater McKinlay shire.
The town has a small, six-bed day hospital staffed by registered nurses and health workers, which can provide low-level care, as well as temporary care for patients needing to be transferred in an emergency.
However, if residents need to see a doctor, the closest one is 147km away in Richmond.
Deputy Mayor Janene Fegan said some patients were sometimes even needing to travel 250km away to Mount Isa to see a GP.
“When COVID-19 hit we didn’t have a doctor at all,” Fegan said.
“So it was either present to the hospital and then they would offer Telehealth, or, if it was an emergency, they had some facilities there.”
Fegan, who is herself a former registered nurse, said it was the potentially serious mid-level cases – which didn’t warrant an emergency transfer – that could be worrying.
“For example, if a child has a high temperature, normally they would stay in hospital to be observed for 24 hours,” Fegan said.
“But families are having to travel at 2am in the morning to the next town to see the doctor, or decide whether to wait.”
While some GPs could be worried about finding themselves on call seven days a week, this position would not require such a commitment, Fegan said.
“They won’t have to be always on call, that’s been identified even in the package,” she said.
“The package is saying it would be a five-day week and there would be support services like Telehealth and nursing staff that can cover emergencies.”
Accommodation in a brand-new home was also on offer for the successful candidate, Fegan said.
“We’ve just recently built another four-bedroom home. A couple in Julia Creek and council have offered for that to be utilised,” Fegan said, adding the Queensland government would cover the rent.
If the doctor was married, the council would also do its best to help their partner find a job locally, Fegan said.
“We would be looking after their partner, ensuring that we would try very hard to find work for them,” she said.
“No-one’s unemployed here in Julia Creek, if they are it’s because they don’t want to work.”
The federal government’s skills priority list, released earlier this month, showed GPs and Resident Medical Officers were in the top 20 most in-demand professions.
Fegan said the shortages meant Julia Creek was competing against a large number of desirable locations for GPs.
“It’s supply and demand. I mean, if someone’s offering a job on the coast where there’s beautiful waves and five cafes to choose from,” Fegan said, before trailing off.
“This is not to deter people,” she added.
“We do have one cafe, which is exceptional, and we also have our grocery store next door which makes very good coffee.
Fegan said Julia Creek had a lot to offer.
“We are a lovely little country town. It’s a great place for young families, really community-minded and supportive,” she said.
“People who do visit are pleasantly surprised.
“I think it’s just a misconception that we’re in the middle of nowhere. We’re not really, we’re just special.”
“And we’re not that far away. We have flights that come in three days a week.”
Fegan said she was an example of someone who had fallen for the town’s charms, having moved to the town 30 years ago intending to just stay for only three months.
“I’d been working in the UK and planned to keep on travelling,” she said.
“I was told that if you stay more than three months here you stay for life, to which I said, ‘don’t be silly’.…that was in April, 1992.”
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