A photograph of the staff at the Kruger Medical Centre taken before a number of Doctors left the Centre.
The operators of the Kruger Medical Centre have responded to Hilltops Council’s announcement that they will be removing them from the current facility by February 12.
A spokesperson provided the following statement.
“Harden- Murrumburrah is small rural town in NSW with population of approximately 3000 people. This whole area is served by doctors from the Kruger Medical Centre Harden with VMO service to the local Hospital.
A recent situation arose with a letter from Hilltops Council on January 16, 2020 to vacate the premises within the next 28 days. This came as a big surprise for us. Council’s part of the story is that they believe the current lessee don’t have a proper contract with them.
The grave concern we have now is the discontinuation of service from Harden will not only disrupt the GP service but it will disrupt the
VMO service in the hospital & patients will suffer in the long run.
We had a contract with Harden Shire Council which in turn after amalgamation became Hilltops Council. We have exchanged several emails backwards and forwards on a commercial contract with Hilltops Council without any luck. I have email correspondence from Mr. David Aber (Acting GM 2018) & Ms. Lee Furness (Director, Corporate Services) who are both no longer employed at Council, where I have requested a number of changes. If these issues had been solved we would have had a commercial contract in 2018.
Moreover we kept giving them the rent along with service charges throughout the period without any delay un till the current date.
We have now 3 doctors (2 of them are sponsored by us as an employer) who are working in the clinic and they work as VMO in Hospital and another 2 doctors are undergoing the process of recruitment. Our company’s discontinuation of service will hamper their visa continuity and they will have to leave Harden after our departure.
As you are aware it is extremely difficult to recruit doctors in rural towns with VMO capability and it will be a great loss for the
community of Harden.
The whole process of discontinuation of service came as shock as we were not aware any emergency situation had happened in Harden as per council’s resolution .
We expect that Council will give our staff members, our doctors, other allied health professionals and our patients in Harden & surrounding areas – a fair go. We would kindly urge all involved please act fast to save the health Of Harden.”
