Daintree Medical Centre has been sold to Melbourne-based Umbrella Health, which has also confirmed it will be opening a new clinic in Albury next year.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
But despite being a metro-run, the company's chief executive has roots on the Border and hopes his home town can benefit from a "different style" of GP clinics.
Michael Cochrane, who has a home in Albury with his wife, said Umbrella Health believes health care is a community asset and he is proud to be bringing that to the Border.
"You have to have a good understanding of the community you are operating in," he told The Border Mail.
"I wanted to bring our really good product for patients, a different offering, to the Albury-Wodonga region.
"In the world we live in, we are often in doctors waiting rooms waiting for GPs who are late and we have processes that combat that, and I wanted to be really proud to offer that product to people I know."
While Mr Cochrane would not say how much the acquisition of the Wodonga-based Daintree clinic was, he said they are investing $2.5 million locally.
Their new clinic, costing $1.5 million, will open in the first week of January in the soon-to-be completed The Hamilton high rise on Hume Street, Albury.
"Some of that remaining figure is going towards investment in a pilot chronic disease management program with three technology providers, which we are choosing to use Albury-Wodonga as the pilot region for those," Mr Cochrane said.
IN OTHER NEWS:
"They are still under contract but, in broad terms, they will increase the access to chronic disease management programs for patients including with diabetes and in the aged care setting."
Daintree Medical Centre will keep its name when it becomes an Umbrella Health clinic on September 1.
"The owners shared our beliefs about it being community health care not corporate health care," Mr Cochrane said.
"We will have eight doctors in Albury and I think there are currently eight at Daintree, and we would be looking to increase that over time."
The Albury clinic will create 10 new jobs in administration and nursing roles, both full time and part time, and will have an on-site cafe.
"Travis and the team at the Barker Group are doing an amazing job to be ready for us to be open in January," Mr Cochrane said.
"Another really great give-back for me being a local is that I can now offer some new jobs to my community through this new clinic.
"Umbrella Health, while being a national company, is very much a family business with its roots in Albury-Wodonga."
