North West Family Medical and Boggabri Medical Centre have both had an increase, the Boggabri clinic reporting an extra 10 to 15 patients per week.

North West Family Medical's Dr Chris Gittoes said the practice never had any spare appointments, which was difficult to handle because they were already busy before the closure.

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"We do try and look after our existing patients, because we need to, and we treat new patients on the basis of whether we've seen them before or their level of acuity. It's difficult, very difficult," Dr Gittoes said.

"Numerous patients come across from [Mackellar Rural Health Centre] ... it's hard in Gunnedah because there's no doctors and you can't get an appointment, but we do the best we can."

The Mackellar clinic closed in October 2019 after months of struggling to find a permanent GP. There have been no decisions on a reopening date yet.

Dr Gittoes said he had never seen the rural health situation so dire in his 15 years as a GP.

"The demand of running a rural general practice has increased ... there is just a shortage of doctors in town," he said.

"But Gunnedah is not on its own - it's across NSW, and we look forward to more development in the rural medical schools, and doctors looking at careers in rural medicine."

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The GP said the time it took for students to become fully fledged GPs didn't help the situation, either.

"The training programs have extended over the years and that's a good thing, probably, [but] it's a long time," he said.

"Our practice is a training practice and we have registrars and students in, so we're doing our bit - but it's a long time from enrolling in uni to working in a general practice."