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Thursday, 25 January, 2024
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High flying thrills A daredevil stunt pilot from Paul Bennet Airshows thrilled the masses at the annual Tooradin Tractor Pull and Truck Show on Saturday 20 January. Meanwhile on terra firma, the enormous trucks, tractors and hotted-up cars continued the spectacle. More pictures on page 12
Picture: GARY SISSONS
Doctors on board By Violet Li Pearcedale Medical Centre has reopened on Friday and Saturday mornings since 19 January after the community’s joint effort to raise awareness of the GP shortage crisis in town. Two new GPs have joined the centre with Dr Pillay practising on Friday and Saturday mornings and Dr Gauchan expecting patients on Saturday mornings. In 2023, Star News reported that the medical centre had to cut operating hours due to long-time difficulties in hiring new GPs. Owner Dr Farza Rastegar said policy restrictions and zoning rules shut qualified overseas doctors out of the door. Zoned as a ‘metropolitan’ clinic in the Casey-south catchment, the centre is only allowed to hire overseas-trained GPs or accred-
ited foreign graduates who have been working in a Distribution Priority Area (DPA) for at least 10 years before providing services covered by Medicare rebates. DPAs are locations with a shortage of GPs, mainly in regional, rural, and remote areas. Neighbouring areas, including Frankston and Mornington, have been granted DPA, despite having multiple medical clinics. Somerville, located within the Mornington Peninsula Shire Council, shares the same postcode as Pearcedale and has been classified as DPA. Running the only GP service in town with four GPs caring for more than 3000 patients, Dr Rastegar felt the increasing pressure and requested an exemption change to the DPA classification of the catchment around June last
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year, which was not approved. The government stated that the CaseySouth catchment had higher than average levels of GP services. The community was furious about the rejection after it led to the clinic cutting its hours. They talked to different media outlets, including The Guardian and ABC, hoping for a change. Dr Rastegar said one of the new GPs Dr Pillay saw the news on ABC and contacted her. “He works in Warragul and lives in Clyde. He was really keen to help out,” she said. “But I don’t think he will be able to work here permanently. It’s hard for him to work for six and seven days a week. “I don’t want to raise my hopes high.” Dr Rastegar did not hear anything affirma-
tive from the government and she believed nothing would change in the next round of DPA review after a phone call with an official working for the Department of Health. “It was a very condescending conversation. He constantly told me to stop and listen like I am a five-year-old,” she said. “He was trying to explain to me why they can’t change DPA and exempt the area because it’s a competition between doctors. “He was saying there was a competition within general practices, and the practices that have more doctors are going to be more successful and have more patients.” Dr Rastegar said she was shocked to learn general practices were a hunger game in this official’s mind. Continued page 8
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