THERE is no active effort being made to recruit a doctor to Chiltern, despite 42 per cent of residents saying they would use the town’s clinic if it was reopened.
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The community has been without a GP since last June when Wodonga doctor Alade Sululola stopped consulting.
A recent survey ordered by Indigo North Health, which is the clinic’s landlord, attracted 322 responses.
It found 42 per cent would attend a reopened medical practice and 74 per cent were patients when it operated.
Asked where they currently see GPs the majority replied Barnawartha (48 per cent) followed by Wodonga (25 per cent), Beechworth (6.8 per cent), Albury (6.5 per cent), Rutherglen (5.4 per cent) and Wangaratta (3.4 per cent).
Indigo North Health chief executive Shane Kirk on Tuesday held a meeting for Chiltern residents and was peppered with questions about appointing a doctor and the future of allied health services provided at the former bush nursing hospital.
He said a community steering group was seeking views on the future use of the old hospital building and that process was a priority over recruiting a GP.
“The rooms are still there, however the board has taken a decision they’re waiting for this whole process to finish before they make a decision on which way they go,” Mr Kirk said.
Indigo North has been forced to self-fund allied health services after federal funding cuts hit on January 1 and it is hoping to win Victorian government money to cover physiotherapy, podiatry and occupational therapy from July 1.
Mr Kirk recoiled at the suggestion Indigo North would sell the old hospital and could not say how much it would sell for, although he said the land was valued at $430,000.
