Bridgewater residents are celebrating after their campaign to keep the region’s only local medical centre open was successful.
Greenpoint Medical Centre will continue to operate under new management come come December, a result that has delighted the clinics 8,000 patients.
Many happy locals joined Labor MP Jen Butler to celebrate the news on Friday morning following weeks of “passionate advocacy” and campaigning.
“When it was announced that Greenpoint was due to close in December it sent shockwaves through the community,” Butler said.
“It took less than a day for the community to rally and demonstrate that they would not lose this service without a fight, and they won.”
“This is a huge victory for the proud and passionate local community and I warmly congratulate them.”
Lead campaigner Melissa Tyrell said the news was a relief for many locals who feared losing their local doctor.
“We all stood together to get where we needed and everyone is just absolutely over the moon,” she said.
“When a community gets together to get what they want, then they will fight tooth and nail to get what they need.”
Bridgewater’s only medical centre saved from closure by Your Hobart Doctor
After months of dedicated rallying and campaigning by the local community, a medical centre in Hobart’s northern suburbs has been saved from closure.
Your Hobart Doctor plans to step in and take over Bridgewater’s Greenpoint Medical Centre from IPN ‘sometime next month’, offering a lifeline to the local community, which had feared being left without access to medical care.
Dr. Mark Baldock from Your Hobart Doctor said they are “looking to expand” the services offered at Greenpoint once they take over.
“We’re looking to increase the opening hours at Greenpoint. We’re looking to provide urgent care at Greenpoint,” he told 7 Tasmania.
“The thought of those people not having access to general practice was something that we felt was not tolerable.”
“When we’re talking about extended hours, that will be running from 8 in the morning to 8 at night, hopefully seven days a week.”
The service plans to begin with around six full-time doctors, with the potential to accommodate even more in the future.
Your Hobart Doctor currently operates an Urgent Care Clinic in the Hobart CBD and is also considering the possibility of opening another clinic at Greenpoint.
IPN, the current operator of Greenpoint, announced their closure back in mid-September due to a shortage of doctors and various “challenges” that made it “unsustainable” for them to continue.
