Mackellar Rural Health Centre may have a permanent doctor at the end of October, after months of locum doctors.
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Mackellar Care Services' new chief executive officer Wayne Snelson said that, of the clinic's two current locum doctors, one was interested in staying in Gunnedah after the confirmed locum period was over.
Mr Snelson started at Mackellar in July, taking over from Sandra Strong; he moved from Sydney to Gunnedah for the position.
"I'm hoping before [the end of October] there will be a permanent GP in, and the current locum has indicated that she wants to stay herself, so we're talking to her about what she's looking for," Mr Snelson said.
"We want to maintain continuity - even if we are using locums, we would like the same locums to come back so that they're familiar with the business."
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The new chief executive said if the locum did not remain after October, the Mackellar board would still be looking for "the right GP" to hire permanently.
"We don't want to just place somebody in there, so we have to be sure that whoever we find is going to fit the requirements of the community," he said.
"We're advertising overseas in the UK where we will actually assist people in their visa applications and sponsor them into coming to Gunnedah."
Mr Snelson said that, based on the current patient base, only one GP would be needed.
"We want to maintain what our current patient base is and then, once we start to get some stability with more GPs coming in ... it will grow as big as what the community wants to grow - because the doctors can only be there if we've got patients and the patients can only be there if we've got doctors," he said.
He said locals would be informed on any updates to the GP search as time went on.
Mr Snelson has previously worked with Catholic Healthcare, Prescare and retirement living business Thomas Holt.