Risdon Vale will get a bulk-billed GP clinic from early next year, run by a mainland company opening in Tasmania for the first time and staffed initially by doctors brought in from interstate.
The state government named the suburb as its latest TassieDoc site on Sunday.
It says the clinic will deliver 20,000 fully bulk-billed appointments a year.
The clinic will be run by Medical First Group, which runs clinics across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.
Risdon Vale will be its first in the state and, according to its chief executive, its 15th overall.
Risdon Vale lost its GP service when the Healthology Medical Centre shut in 2024 after two doctors left.
Its patients were sent to clinics at Rosny and Rokeby.
Premier Jeremy Rockliff said the government was “reaching in” because the community valued more bulk-billed appointments, even though primary care was a federal responsibility.
Health Minister Bridget Archer said the clinic was “the next iteration of our Tassie Docs commitments”, following sites in the Huon Valley, Deloraine, Westbury, the West Coast and Bridport.
The building behind the announcement will be refurbished from early October, with a fit-out hoped to be finished by the end of December.
Medical First Group chief executive Kristy Williamson said she was aiming to have doctors and patients in by March.
Williamson said three doctors were already interested, but they would be coming from interstate rather than Tasmania.
The company is also looking at buying a clinic in Hobart to help staff the Risdon Vale site.
She said the clinic filled a gap in a community of about 3,500 people that had gone without local care.
“There hasn’t been any primary care in the area,” Williamson said.
She said the clinic would run 9-5 on weekdays in its first year and add weekend appointments in its second.
“Everybody deserves healthcare and it shouldn’t be just tied to postcode,” she said.
Archer said the government had committed $16 million across the budget for the whole TassieDoc program, with the Huon Valley health hub funded separately at $15 million. She said the contract for the Risdon Vale clinic was still being finalised.
The announcement has drawn a mixed response from Labor, which first promised a Risdon Vale clinic more than a year ago.
Shadow health minister Sarah Lovell welcomed the clinic but said it could not distract from the government working to find $700 million in health savings.
“Tasmanians deserve better access to GPs, but they also deserve properly funded hospitals, mental health services and specialist care when they need it,” Lovell said.
Asked on Labor’s claims, Rockliff said he was “not into the games of the Labor Party” and pointed to “$580 million more investment in health in this budget”.
The clinic is expected to open in March 2027.
