Clare Medical Centre would like to reassure the community that our services across Clare, Burra, and Snowtown remain operational following the recent closures of Burra Medical Centre and Clare Doctors Surgery.

Key information for our patients and community:

  • Clare Medical Centre continues to operate the Burra Medical Clinic, located within the Burra Hospital, and this service remains open. This is a completely separate service to the Burra Medical Centre that has recently closed.
  • Our Burra clinic generally operates Monday to Friday. However, due to current workforce shortages, we are unfortunately unable to staff the clinic every day at this time. We continue to aim to provide services whenever possible.
  • In some weeks, there may be certain days when the Burra clinic is closed due to doctor availability. Where possible, we endeavour to maintain the same overall number of weekly appointments by sending multiple doctors on alternate days if we can.
  • Clare Medical Centre is accepting new patients at all three of our sites — Clare, Burra, and Snowtown.
  • Due to the significant increase in new patients seeking appointments following the closure of these two local practices, wait times for standard appointments at both our Clare and Burra clinics are currently longer than usual.
  • Patients requiring urgent appointments should contact their local clinic in the first instance and every effort will be made to arrange timely care. If we do not have available appointments for an urgent review, patients may be directed to attend their local hospital emergency department. Your local hospital should always be the first option in a life-threatening emergency.
  • Clare Medical Centre maintains an active cancellation list to help offer earlier appointments to patients whenever possible, please ask to be added to the cancellation list if you are seeking an earlier appt.
  • We are actively exploring options to reduce waiting times, including offering additional sessions within our existing workforce and engaging locum doctors to provide extra appointments over the coming months.
  • Clare Medical Centre remains committed to recruiting additional doctors to help meet the growing needs of our community.
  • Clare Medical Centre is a mixed billing practice, meaning patients generally pay a co-payment (or “gap”) for medical services. In some instances, individual doctors may choose to waive co-payments (“bulk bill”) for eligible patients. This is commonly the case for those who hold healthcare concession cards or aged care pension cards. Children under the age of 18 will always be bulk-billed for standard appointments. Preventative care appointments may be eligible to be bulk billed under the Medicare chronic disease management program for patients with ongoing health issues requiring regular appointments.

 

We thank the community for their patience and understanding during this period of increased demand and workforce pressure.