Lismore’s only dermatologist warns many medicos will leave the area if financial assistance doesn’t come soon.
Seven months ago today, Lismore’s only dermatologist lost his busy practice to a flood of water that decimated his town and neighbouring communities for hundreds of kilometres.
Dr Ken Gudmundsen’s destroyed building remains unrepaired, while he has moved his practice to much smaller premises out of the flood zone.
He accused state and federal governments of abandoning the devastated community.
“The whole town needs money so they can fix things or buy things like equipment or repair things,” he said.
And he warned many medicos, from GPs to specialists, will leave the area if assistance doesn’t come to rebuild the town and its infrastructure. The only reason he hasn’t left yet was because of his “amazing” clinic team and a responsibility to his patients, Dr Gudmundsen said.
“This is the second biggest disaster in Australian history [after Cyclone Tracy] and we’ve just been abandoned,” he told Dermatology Republic.
“This was a catastrophic disaster and it really is the responsibility of government to help us.”
Dr Gudmundsen estimateed he needed about $1 million to restore his practice, the Lismore Skin Clinic, which went underwater seven months ago.
“In the big scheme of things that’s not a lot of money, and that’s the tragedy of it,” he said.
Financially crippled by lost equipment, lost wages, decreased income and a huge repair bill, he said he was also mindful that his ability to service his patients in the way he did this time last year has evaporated.
The Australasian College of Dermatologists (ACD) has joined the call by the Australian Medical Association (AMA) and NSW Rural Doctors Network for more support to be made available to medical practitioners whose practices were destroyed in the Northern Rivers floods.
“Access to care was already extremely limited in rural and regional areas like northern New South Wales before the floods,” the college said in a statement.
“At a time when there is widespread acknowledgement of the desperate need to get more doctors into regional areas, the federal and state governments must provide meaningful and urgent financial support to those doctors already there.
“That is why ACD is joining the call for a flood support payment to be made available immediately to those non-government healthcare businesses that were affected by the Northern Rivers Floods in February 2022.”
Dr Gudmundsen said he had been waiting more than six months for a meaningful response from the federal and state governments to enable him to restore his practice.
“My practice lost everything in the floods, from computers, specialised diagnostic and treatment equipment, to beds, furniture and books,” he said.
“The walls, floors and ceilings of the practice had to be removed and the site remained without power for almost four months”.
Due to the severity of the damage to his practice, Dr Gudmundsen was forced to close for three months after the floods as he found and resourced new premises. But the size of the temporary clinic means he can only see half of the number of patients he usually sees.
“I am still catching up after being out for three months,” he told DR. “That increases the risk of delayed diagnoses.”
Limited space and lack of equipment means patients can no longer receive the full suite of services Dr Gudmundsen usually provides. Practice staff have had to cut their hours and there is the risk of losing their valuable expertise altogether.
“After all I have lost, I hope I don’t lose my nursing and administrative staff as well,” Dr Gudmundsen said.
The impact of reduced service capacity on a community already traumatised by the floods has been significant. Doctors like Dr Gudmundsen have done everything they can to keep their services open and continue to care for their patients, however, they are now at breaking point financially, physically and mentally.
“Operating for three months with no income and now half income for the foreseeable future, combined with the huge expenses to rebuild and reequip clinics is just not sustainable,” he said.
Lismore’s Keen Street Clinic was another practice to go under in the floods.
The general practice lost almost every item of equipment and most furniture was destroyed, along with 30,000 medical records.
The most that the government offered in support were $50,000 small business grants – each of the four practice partners, technically being sole traders, were able to claim a grant, as was the clinic as a business.
That $250,000 will only make a dent; damages are still stacking up, but they’ve blown out well past $1 million.
“It’s very difficult to sustain general practice even in the very best of times,” Keen Street GP Dr Nina Robertson said.
“So you can imagine how difficult it is in a time of natural disaster.”
Grants of up to $200,000 are available, but only to businesses with a minimum of 21 full-time employees. Keen Street Clinic is just one of 25 primary care services which were damaged in the March floods.
Dr Robertson is working with other healthcare practitioners in the Northern Rivers area who have also been affected by the floods to lobby state and federal governments for more grant money.
The group includes GPs, obstetricians and gynaecologists, cardiologists, dermatologists, physiotherapists, dentists and pharmacists.
“The AMA has kindly taken up our cause and have joined forces with many of the medical colleges as well,” Dr Robertson told Dermatology Republic’s sister publication The Medical Republic.
“The RACGP and ACRRM [are working with us], as well as some of the specialty colleges [including the ACD] – and indeed, the Pharmacy Guild is also on board.”
Through the NSW Rural Doctor’s Network, the group has put together a grant proposal recommending that the state government make a healthcare-specific business grant open to all non-government primary health services and conditions.
The proposed grant would be sufficient to cover the losses caused by the floods, as well as compensate practitioners for lost income.
In the meantime, the NSW RDN said that all healthcare businesses, regardless of size, should be eligible for the $200,000 grant.
“What we’re hoping for is twofold,” Dr Robertson said.
“One is prioritisation of healthcare services after this natural disaster, and number two would be that all levels of government come up with a framework to make sure that essential services, which includes community health services, are prioritised in the event of a natural disaster.
“[It’s about making sure] that what happened in Lismore after this flood doesn’t happen in any other community after the next natural disaster.”
Additional reporting by Holly Payne
