As hundreds of general practitioners nationwide begin to deliver more specifically to indigenous communities as part of the Abbott Government’s Closing the Gap scheme, Townsville doctor and former Pride of Australia nominee Dr Praveen Kumar has gone it alone.
“It’s not funded by the federal government, it’s funded by me, unfortunately — it’s a big hole in the pocket,” he said.
It comes as the debate over the indigenous health crisis intensifies, with billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest getting prominent indigenous backing last week for a “healthy” eftpos-style welfare card that would block spending on alcohol and gambling.
“I’m not banking on charging anyone, because I can’t, because these people can’t afford that,” Dr Kumar said.
The Director of My Family Doctors in Kirwan was the first GP to bring 24-7 bulk billing to Townsville a year ago.
He said he had noticed recurring illnesses among indigenous and islander patients such as gout, obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes.
The 24-hour centre has six Aboriginal health workers, a disabled-access bus, a kitchen to tutor locals in healthy eating, a bathroom and barber’s facilities for the homeless, a multimedia room for elder meetings and $15,000 of health pack giveaways.
And Dr Kumar is planning a five-room expansion even as he opens the doors today.
“We have a lot of Aboriginal patients here and we’re sure we can give them priority treatment in this centre, which will be specifically for them,” he said.
“We talk about this all a lot but there’s no medical centre specifically for this.
“It’s going to become a big problem because of the way the population is going.”
Indigenous leader Professor Gracelyn Smallwood welcomed the clinic yesterday.
“I welcome any GP service to do what ‘Dr PK’ has done,” she said.
“It’s been absolutely lacking. Only some GP services are starting to jump on the bandwagon now because there’s money available, whereas Dr PK has taken this initiative on his own.
“When you get GPs doing that, it means they’re sincere.
“I’ve been challenging GPs for 45 years because the majority of their clients have been non-indigenous; now that the Closing the Gap money has come, lots of GPs want to do health checks, but Dr PK is going far beyond that and he’s doing it on his own, with his own funding.”