Mackellar Rural Health Centre has opened its doors to patients.
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The health centre operated three days last week and four days this week, with chief medical officer Dr Martin Joldowski-Tan taking appointments.
Mackellar Care Services’ Sandra Strong said the centre will be closed over Christmas and will reopen on January 3.
“We’re trying to get through some of the load for people who haven't been able to get into a medical practices anywhere and we know it's busy for all of the local practices and even just starting some little way before Christmas, we knew it would ease some of the burden the other practices are facing,” she said.
The chief executive officer said the response from the community has been “extremely positive”.
“There's been marvellous support from the community and acknowldgements that this is going to make a difference to people in the community,” she said.
“I've had people speak to me who are travelled quite some distance out of town to get a generalist appointment and they've now been able to get an appointment.”
One permanent doctor is confirmed to start at the centre in February but Ms Strong said recruiting to cover December and January has been difficult.
“We're hopeful for some locums for the January period whereas we had eight doctors who showed interest back in August. When we began recruiting in November, no one wanted to move that close to Christmas,” she said.
The cafe connected to the health centre will begin operations on January 15 and will be operated by the centre.
“Sonia Jones who has leased the cafe for many years has decided not to re-lease it and when she made that decision we asked her if she would manage it for us and she said yes,” Mrs Strong said.
