The Royal Flying Doctor Service will steer the latest interim GP access arrangement for the outback.
Clermont residents will regain access to local GP services in six to eight weeks, following the closure of their only clinic in December 2025, the Northern Queensland Primary Health Network (NQPHN) announced on 29 June.
The 6-month interim solution, commissioned by the NQPHN and fully funded by the Department of Health, Disability, and Ageing, will be delivered by the RFDS Queensland division.
The RFDS will provide face-to-face and telehealth consultations via an online booking system. However, further details on service delivery, opening times, and staffing are yet to be confirmed.
All Medicare-eligible GP services will be provided at no out-of-pocket cost to patients.
Sam Faint, chair of the community-led, not-for-profit organisation ClermontCONNECT, said the clinic’s closure had placed pressure on patients, families, and local health workers across Clermont, an MM6 location, and hoped the initiative would provide the community some “breathing space”.
“We know the hospital team in particular has had a very difficult period with locum doctors coming and going and ongoing workforce challenges,” Ms Faint said.
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In a separate event, Dr Sarah McLay’s Clermont Country Practice, the town’s only other clinic, closed in January 2025, leaving the town without a permanent GP service.
Ms Faint told The Medical Republic FIFO doctors would operate Monday to Friday, with collaborative care and shared patient records, minimising the risk of fragmented care.
While she said FIFO doctors were beneficial – for instance, by relieving residential GPs once per fortnight – on-site GPs and community-owned clinics remain essential.
“If a provider or doctor opens a clinic and then they leave, the town loses everything at once – the clinic, records and services,” Ms Faint said.
A community-owned surgery, like those in Queensland’s Mareeba and Emerald, would ensure ongoing access to FIFO doctors or allied health until a GP was replaced, rather than losing the clinic entirely, she told TMR.
NQPHN executive director of integration and innovation, Matt Burrows, said the initiative was a critical step towards ensuring long-term, sustainable access to comprehensive general practice care in Clermont.
“We will continue to work towards building a fit-for-purpose model that supports the ongoing viability of primary care in the Isaac region,” Mr Burrows said.
Mackay Hospital and Health Service chief executive Sean Birgan said the hospital will support the clinic’s local services by providing the GP clinic building, equipment, and accommodation for visiting staff.
“Mackay HHS has been working closely with NQPHN, Clermont community groups, and Isaac Regional Council over the past six months to explore options to support a GP practice in Clermont,” Mr Birgan said.
Chief executive of the National Rural Health Alliance, Susi Tegen, said equitable funding and place-based decision-making were vital, especially in rural towns with diverse patient populations and complex health conditions.
“Without it, we’ll continue to lose the [rural] workforce, and we will continue to have hospital dependency,” she said.
Medicare fee-for-service works best in urban centres, where alternative services are available and there “isn’t a tyranny of distance”, Ms Tegen told TMR.
“There are so often programs that are designed with an urban assumption that patients have access to secondary and tertiary services,” she said.
In rural areas, where one or two GPs often provide both clinical and multidisciplinary care, on-site GPs remain the gold standard for continuity of care, chronic disease management, and community confidence, the NHRA CEO said.
Ms Tegen acknowledged that the FIFO model could be scaled, but maintained that it should be part of the NQPHN’s remit to scale up the local workforce.
“We must not sit on our hands and say this is good enough, because it isn’t,” the NHRA CEO said.
“It is crucial that at the time of this delivery, there are opportunities to explore the population health needs, what the PRIM-HS model can offer, and what community learnings from Mareeba can offer [Clermont],” she said.
The NQPHN said it would continue collaborating with the government on a long-term Service System Recovery Plan and a Thin Markets funding model for the Isaac region.
