The Harden Pharmacy has started a petition titled ‘Our Doctors Are
Leaving!!!! HELP!!
The Post states, “Two more of our favourite Doctors are leaving
the Kruger Medical Center. This is four Doctors in two weeks!!!
Let’s make the Hilltops Council take action. Come in store and sign
our petition to SAVE OUR MEDICAL CENTER!”
The Medical Centre is now owned by Hilltops Council after the forced merger of May 12 2016. The merger means that the assets of the former Council area were consolidated under the new merged entity, meaning that Councillors from other communities including Young and Boorowa will decide how the Centre is operated.
The Times contacted the current operators of the Kruger Health and
Wellness Complex, also known locally as the Kruger Medical
Centre, after being contacted by several members of the public.
It appears the community wants answers and an explanation as to why there has been a loss of two of the facility’s Doctors over the last 2 weeks and why 2 more Doctors may be leaving on Friday.
Social media lit up overnight with questions and statements on the Pharmacy post from confused residents.
A spokesperson for the practice said that there are 3 Doctors
currently working at the Medical Centre, and that one Doctor will be
available for the Christmas New year Period as the other Doctors will
be going on a break.
They said, “We have signed the contract with another Doctor, he
is starting from the end of January or early February 2020. Another 3
Doctors are in the pipeline.
The spokesperson said three Doctors can work at the Hospital and
have Visiting Medical Officer status (VMO) status.
According to the Pharmacy Facebook page “Two More Doctors are
Leaving” which would leave just one Doctor with VMO rights, over the
festive season and to cater for patient needs at the Medical Centre.
The spokesperson said, “We are running our recruitment campaign. We have secured Dr Goke, Dr Goke’s wife, Dr Stella, who is also a GP professionally, will join us soon as well at Kruger. We have also signed a contract with another Doctor who is coming to Harden in mid January to arrange his accommodation facility. He has already placed his application in the hospital to work as a VMO. He is supposed to start by end of January or early February. We are in the process of signing contracts with another two Doctors who will be relocating to Harden with a special interest to Emergency and Skin Cancer surgery.”
The current operators are contracted to December 2022.
The building was described by media 10 years ago as ‘the high-tech Kruger Health and Wellness Complex, built by Harden Shire Council using funds bequeathed by local dentist Geoff Kruger. It has eight consulting rooms, two dental units, a video conferencing training room linked to the rural clinical school at the University of Wollongong and a hydrotherapy pool with a hydraulic floor, underwater treadmills and cameras and TV monitors imported from the United States. It is the only facility of its kind in Australia and only the third outside the US.’
Hamid Raoof operated the Centre from March 2009 before the facility came under the umbrella of the current operators.
Doctors Khalfan and Datoo serviced the needs of the Harden-Murrumburrah District for close to 30 years before retiring after the Centre was built.
The former Harden Shire Council and now Hilltops Council signed a
contract with the operators in 2018. Hilltops Council currently owns
the Medical records of up to 6000 patients at the Medical Centre.
The spokesperson said, “It has been a common scenario that Doctors at Kruger relocate to other places in every two to three years due to professional or personal reasons. However, we have successfully replaced those positions in the past with suitable candidates. This time we will again recruit doctors to fill out the positions within considerable time. Patients can be assured that patient privacy and patient care will not be compromised.”
The spokesperson highlighted the need for privacy for patients.
They said, “Kruger’s patient records which includes patient sensitive
information are fully computerised and kept securely onsite and been
backed up off site everyday for last 7 years. We always try our level
best to have a secure IT system for the centre. So that even 20 years
later if anyone asks for any information of their health situation
they will get that if they have proper authority. All Doctors and
staff members have access to a certain level of information to access
in the system. Also they all have to sign a privacy and
confidentiality agreement with Clinic management to work here. Only Dr
Islam and Hilltops Shire Council have the top most authority to access
the patient data. While recruiting Doctors we always make sure that
they comply with Kruger’s patient privacy and confidentiality policy.”
The current Doctor situation is continuing to unfold at the Centre. More to come.
