Medical clinic gets the right treatment

By Paul Dunlop
LANG LANG has won its bid to get a new doctor in the town.
Residents of the closeknit community are celebrating a recent breakthrough that will enable a New Zealandtrained doctor to be employed at the town’s clinic.
Lang Lang Community Medical Centre management and Flinders MP Greg Hunt had lobbied for Dr Maria Sullivan to be allowed to work at Lang Lang and had called on Health and Ageing Minister Tony Abbott to use discretionary powers to allow another doctor to be employed.
Mr Hunt said yesterday that Mr Abbott had granted special approval allowing Dr Sullivan to join the practice.
It is hoped that Dr Sullivan’s arrival will help ease a desperate situation that had seen the medical centre unable to take on new clients because of the huge demand for medical services.
As previously reported in the Gazette, despite Lang Lang’s small population and a huge demand for increased services, the medical centre had been told it was ineligible for extra resources and incentives offered to country practices.
The ruling came about because although Mr Hunt and other authorities had argued that Lang Lang was clearly a rural town, it was part of Cardinia Shire, which is considered metropolitan under the Federal Government’s health classification scheme.
Mr Hunt said Lang Lang had become a “victim of its own success”.
He said Mr Abbott’s decision would alleviate the pressure on the medical centre in the short term and pledged to continue working to have Lang Lang recognised as a rural area.
Brenda Watts of the Lang Lang Community Medical Centre said staff were thrilled by the news that Dr Sullivan was now able to work there.
The new doctor will start in November, initially working one day per week before hopefully increasing her hours next year.
The centre’s management committee secretary Jan McGregor said it was great news.
She said Dr Sullivan would provide valuable and muchneeded support for Dr Natasha Aylen.
“It will certainly help to ease Natasha’s workload,” she said.
Mrs McGregor paid tribute to the efforts of Mr Hunt, saying the Flinders MP had provided “wonderful support”.
Residents and centre management welcomed news that they were to get another doctor, but said they would also continue to fight to have their town reclassified.