This MNC town is waiting on doctors and childcare, but without one it may never get the other

The beautiful beaches of South West Rocks - population about 5,500 - aren’t enough to keep GPs, and without improved access to childcare, locals may continue to be stuck on waitlists.

Seascape Medical Centre will lose two GPs in coming weeks, leaving three doctors and one skin cancer specialist. 

Doctors’ books remain closed for new patients: Human Resources Manager Shadi Malak said the centre does not have a waitlist for new patients wanting to see a GP at the centre, as there is no point.

“We don’t know when we’ll get more doctors on deck,” he told The Mid North Coaster. “An average of 10 patients are turned away daily, including pregnant mothers who we have to send to Kempsey.”

He said he was “trying to squeeze [current patients] in with all these doctors who already had their books closed. It's a struggle”.

The summer school holidays have been “mayhem” for the practice.

“South West Rocks gets busier every year. And we have to accept visitors in emergencies, which just fills up, we can't say no to them.”

The challenge of retaining GPs in the area is nothing new. 

• “Eight years ago, we noticed the big shortage in the community and people having to drive half an hour to Kempsey or an hour to Port [Macquarie] to get their medical resources,” Malak said.

• “And that's when we decided to build the medical centre, hoping it would be a one-stop shop for the locals to get their allied health, GPs and whatever else.”

The inevitable move: As the population of South West Rocks grows, the lack of childcare and other services in the area are stopping GPs from relocating there. 

Malak says one of the medical centre’s doctors, his father Dr Akram Malak, spends time after hours training overseas doctors, registrars and medical university students in the hope they will stay at the centre after the training is completed, but in most cases they leave.

The family even takes the out-of-town doctors on a local tour.

“​​We sell the area to them. We show them around, we take them out for food and sightseeing and to the beach, and they're happy to stay that first year or two,” Malak said.

“They all tell us they're here for the long run, but they start to find out that there's a shortage in infrastructure, and whether it's childcare or people want more shops, they end up moving back to Sydney.”

One GP is doing just that and moving back to the city in coming weeks. The other is moving next month to Port Macquarie, where her two-year-old daughter goes to childcare three days a week – a two hour round trip from South West Rocks. 

According to a social media post by Seascape Medical Centre, the daughter has been on a waitlist for childcare at South West Rocks for the past two years. 

More incentives needed: Malak says the practice goes “above and beyond” to make up for the lack of services. “Our pay is much better than the cities offer any doctors. Our incentives are higher. It's [a] cliche, but it's a family feel.” Not to mention staff lunches and dinners.

“We're just breaking even, putting all this money into recruitment,” Malak said. But without infrastructure and services, it’s not paying off.

A local representative: Member for Oxley, Michael Kemp said there are enough subsidies for families to get childcare, but there aren’t enough spots, and that childcare workers and those building centres are the ones in need of better support.

“It is clear that doctors who have families are significantly disadvantaged with situations like childcare,” Kemp told the Mid North Coaster.

• “Things like having good schools, access to things like shopping centres, good health care options, they’re all critical when [doctors] are thinking about relocating, and childcare is right at the top of the list.”

Kemp acknowledged not having childcare impacts the ability for people to return to the workforce and believes working parents should get priority [for childcare placements] over non-working parents, “and that’s not happening at the moment”.

Kemp said state MPs should support fee-free courses to encourage people to join the industry as well as ways to incentivise childcare centres to build, and suggested local councils can help by streamlining Development Applications for childcare facilities. 

He believes childcare workers need to be paid more.