It’s been revealed that more than $1m has been spent on two senior staff salaries at Cohealth as well as thousands on crisis communications after the government bailed it out.
Cohealth is facing fresh scrutiny after it was revealed that the community health provider has spent over $1 million on two senior staff and crisis communications while seeking government help to avoid crisis cuts.
An article in Nine Newspapers this week reported that transition chair Paul Geyer, who works two days a week, is being paid $3000 a day for the role. The interim chief executive, Kate Gillan, is reportedly earning $488,000 a year, and $288,000 has allegedly spent for eight months of external crisis communications.
This article originally ran on TMR’s sister site, Health Services Daily. TMR readers can sign up for a discounted subscription.
The report said the payments were detailed in internal communications, with the transitional chair’s salary originally set between $5000 and $7000 a week for the part-time position.
It’s not a good look for the community health provider, which announced it was axing three of its GP services in Collingwood, Fitzroy and Kensington, saying they were financially unviable.
In November, the Albanese government promised a $1.5 million bailout to rescue the three services. It followed up with an additional $1.5 million to make sure Cohealth services at the three sites stayed open.
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At the same time, an independent review into GP services took place, and a redacted version of the report was eventually released in June. It removed all commercial-in-confidence figures and while lead reviewer Professor Stephen Duckett was scathing in his assessment of Cohealth’s several financial and management failures, it gave the reader an incomplete picture of the true financial concerns.
However, The Medical Republic sister publication Health Services Daily was anonymously sent a confidential draft version of the report dated March 2026. It includes all the financial elements redacted from the final report and shows Cohealth has a documented history of overspending on wages.
“Across all periods reviewed, salary expenses consistently exceeded total income, with salary costs representing between 121% and 130% of total income,” the draft report said.
The specific wages of executive community health staff aren’t generally disclosed to the public. However, according to the latest Cohealth financial report, $2,245,442 was spent on key management personnel as of 30 June 2025. This includes the board of directors, CEO, director of finance and the executive leaders.
Most board members of charities are unpaid, the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission (ACNC) reported.
“They volunteer their time, experience and expertise to their charity without taking payment for their service,” the website said.
However, some charities do remunerate board members, and this is allowed by the ACNC. This may be because the charities can be complex and need board members with a particular skill set.
When told about the remuneration at Cohealth, Victorian premier Ben Carroll said he would look into it urgently.
“I was pleased to be able to step in with ministers and support Cohealth in Collingwood that was at risk of closing,” he said.
“But I will follow that up as a matter of urgency.”
Just this week, the Victorian government announced that it would redevelop Cohealth’s Hoddle Street property into a purpose-built community health hub and social housing development.
TMR sent a series of questions to Cohealth asking whether it could confirm the salaries for executives and whether any of the $1.5 million in emergency federal funding provided to keep Cohealth operating went directly or indirectly towards executive remuneration.
A Cohealth spokesperson said in a statement:
“Cohealth was provided with independent advice on the remuneration of executive and board roles, and they are consistent with other independent community health providers and align with the public sector.”
They said the funding received from the government is contingent on Cohealth meeting important milestones relating to ongoing general practice service delivery, as well as the work required to improve the sustainability of our general practice services and model of care.
“The first $1.5m has been invested directly into keeping our general practice services going across all three clinics in Collingwood, Kensington, and Fitzroy.
“Between January and August this year, 15,301 general practice appointments were delivered at the three clinics.
“We are now working towards a single, sustainable model of care across our general practice clinics, and making excellent progress in collaboration with staff, clients, and government.
“The second $1.5m funding package will be released quarterly over the next 12 months, and we’re progressing well toward the milestones required to release the first payment.
“Cohealth takes its ethical responsibility for the use of government funding very seriously. The contractual obligations attached to these funding packages will be independently audited, and strong governance structures are in place, including government representatives, to provide oversight of the general practice service delivery, improvement work, and associated funding.
“As we continue to respond to the Independent Review, we have invested in a strong interim Board and Leadership Team that is focused not only on strengthening the sustainability of our general practice model of care, but the many high-quality services we deliver across Victoria and Tasmania.”
