A local GP is hoping that Hunter New England Health's (HNEH) takeover of the Gunnedah Rural Health Centre will not be another "poor decision".
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Dr Chris Gittoes from North West Family Medical isn't convinced that it's the best decision for Gunnedah's future, nor will it solve the constant struggle to bring doctors to town.
Parkes MP Mark Coulton however remained confident in his 'build it and they will come' stance, as it had in Dubbo.
Dr Gittoes said the centre had a "long history of poor decision making associated with it".
"I hope that [HNEH] will be able to do something positive with it, but my concern is that the people that make the decisions have had several approaches by serious, valid and viable medical practices that could have made that centre function," Dr Gittoes told the NVI.
"There was a proposal on the table for an established medical practice to take control of it however rather than that outcome, the decision was made to hand control of the centre to Mackellar Care Services who had no experience in running medical practices and who had no permanent doctors on their staff and consequently this failed.
"Now more recently, another viable medical practice approached HNEH with a proposal to takeover the medical centre and to completely take over the emergency department staffing of the hospital, and that too was declined."
Mr Coulton was confident HNEH would do a good job of running the clinic, though.
"There's been a lot of disappointment that it hasn't worked out and a lot of people have been trying to make that happen from the original committee to Mackellar, but ... HNEH are a very substantial organisation and they should have the resources to make this work," the MP said.
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Dr Gittoes believes the original super clinic structure would've been the best possible outcome.
"One of the key criteria for that centre operating in the first place was to attract and retain doctors and I think for the sake of the Gunnedah community that should still be their criteria," he said.
"That's what the building is designed for and ... [the build] was all volunteer work, so I think that all that work would be best rewarded by that centre being a medical practice rather than an extension of the hospital."
People we can't take on are going to Tamworth, Boggabri or Coonabarabran and that's just not good governance of a town.
- Dr Chris Gittoes
Mr Coulton said once the clinic was up and running, and when the Gunnedah hospital upgrade was complete, doctors might then be more attracted to town.
"We found that in Dubbo; once the hospital starts to get upgraded then there was more doctors prepared to come," he said.
"The idea was that doctors could come in here and then if they were doing obstetrics, they could check on their patients without having to drive around town and that sort of stuff, so as far as I know everything is on track.
But Gunnedah is already "desperately short" of doctors, according to Dr Gittoes.
"We're overrun with people wanting to become new patients, and I'm sure Barber Street Medical Practice would be in a similar boat," he said.
"People we can't take on are going to Tamworth, Boggabri or Coonabarabran and that's just not good governance of a town."
HNEH's plan is to have the centre up and running before Christmas time.