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Troubled clinic to close

By Melissa Donchi
THE Yarra Glen Clinic will close its doors at the end of the month making way for a new business to set up at the Point Pleasant Shopping Centre.
The Mail has been told that a lease agreement between the two parties has been signed and that the deal is official.
The Yarra Valley Clinic, which operates the Yarra Glen surgery, has remained tight-lipped about the news.
The Yarra Glen Clinic has long suffered from a shortage of staff, with just two doctors tending to the town’s medical needs.
After the death of Dr John Lockwood and the impending retirement of Dr Elroy Schroeder the clinic will have no doctors.
Yarra Glen’s classification as a metro area has also made it more difficult to attract new doctors to the area, with the law stating that new and overseas doctors must get a few years of experience in a rural area first.
McEwen MP Fran Bailey said there were a range of rural incentives to assist in attracting GPs to the area.
“I have double-checked this with the Federal Health Minister and I hope that the Eastern Ranges GP Association is doing everything in its power to attract more GPs to our region,” Ms Bailey said.
But it’s not just residents that will be affected by the closing clinic.
Yarra Glen’s Pharmacy will also be forced to close its doors if everyone takes their business elsewhere.
“At this stage I don’t know how bad it will be me but I do know in terms of prescriptions there would be a lot of reductions,” pharmacist Ted Cheung told the Mail.
“I will just have to assess the situation as it goes.”
President of the Yarra Glen Chamber of Commerce Marjorie Woolands said it was a relief to finally know the truth.
“After weeks of uncertainty it is somewhat of a relief to know that this is happening so we can actually do something about it,” Ms Woolands said.
“The Yarra Glen Chamber of Commerce will be meeting shortly to discuss options of attracting more doctors to the area and we will be doing everything we can to ensure that this town has adequate medical services.”

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