Providing GP services in the town of Kalbarri has become financially unsustainable, leading to the announcement that the town’s only GP clinic will close within weeks.
The RACGP has told Medical Forum this was not a matter specific to the town of Kalbarri or the Mid West, but an issue with how general practice and bulk billing is funded across the board.
“This is not a single story just about Kalbarri in itself… it’s a funding story, goodwill is not a funding model,” RACGP Vice President and WA Chair Dr Ramya Raman said.
Christopher Hamilton, director of Medibloom Group which operates Kalbarri Doctors Surgery said “every option had been exhausted” in an effort to keep the clinic open and unfortunately the clinic would close as of June 26.
“The reality is that the cost of operating a fully bulk-billed remote GP clinic now exceeds the funding available to support it,” he said.
He said while operating margins had been tight for some time, the removal of MBS items that took effect in July and November last year made the business of delivering GP services no longer viable.
“Our GPs had utilised those items for care plans, care plan reviews, heart health assessments, mental health items,” Mr Hamilton, whose wife is one of the three GPs who work at the clinic, said.
He said the clinic moved to the Bulk Billing Practice Incentive Program earlier this year, but the funds provided were not enough to make up for the shortfall from being able to use MBS items that no longer exist to cover certain consults.
“The GPs are just seeing more patients for less money,” Mr Hamilton said.
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He said Medibloom Group had informed the federal, state and local governments that the government was running at a loss back in June 2025, and that the clinic may be forced to close.
“To keep the practice going, we’ve always had a shortfall every month, so we’ve been putting our own finances in to keep the practice afloat, so it’s come directly from our own pockets to keep the doors open,” Mr Hamilton told Medical Forum.
He said the clinic had reached out to the local government to see if it could provide funding to assist the clinic “and let’s be clear, it is not up to the local government to do that” he noted, but he said the local government was not in a position to do that.
Mr Hamilton said representatives from other GP clinics in WA also struggling to stay financially viable had been in touch since the announcement was made on Tuesday.
“From what I’ve been told, there’s a critical closure list with the federal government,” he said.
Dr Raman said she was concerned, without the federal government stepping in to make change, more GP clinics could close.
“We don’t want to see more of this happening,” she said.
“For many years now, many of us have been warning that the current funding model is unsustainable.”
Dr Raman said GP practises had been absorbing rising costs in wages, rent, technology, insurance, accreditation compliance, whilst the Medicare rebate failed to keep pace with the true cost of delivering care.
“Now we’ve seen the CPI increases at 2.6%. It really doesn’t keep pace with the current costs of running the practice,” she said.
“We need to look at the system structure and the funding models that are being delivered for general practice.
“We need to be looking at increasing the patient Medicare rebates.”
Medical Forum contacted Health Minister Mark Butler’s office in regard to the matter and asked how many GP clinics had closed across Australia this year and how many clinics were on the Federal Critical Closure list.
The minister did not provide those numbers or respond as to whether the government would consider reinstating MBS items removed in 2025.
However, a statement attributed to a government spokesperson pointed to investments made toward boosting the GP workforce and provided detail on the BBPIP.
“Bulk billing incentives are paid to GPs for every patient they bulk bill and this payment is scaled by remoteness with Kalbarri GPs receiving a rebate 180 per cent more than in metro locations,” the spokesperson said.
The federal government has also committed more than $49 million over four years through to 2027 for the General Practice Incentive Fund (GPIF) which supports collaboration between government, jurisdictions and local stakeholders to address underlying causes of what the government calls “thin and failing” primary care markets.
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