cohealth's decision to axe its bulk-billing GP clinics in Collingwood and Fitzroy is a gut punch to the communities that need them most.
Over the next few months, these vital primary health services will close their doors – a devastating blow to thousands of Victorians who rely on them. The patients who attend cohealth are individuals with nowhere else to turn. They are the single parents on low incomes, the newly arrived refugees learning to rebuild their lives, people facing homelessness or family violence, and residents managing chronic illness or mental health challenges.
cohealth's clinics see more than 46,000 patients each year across their three sites (in Collingwood, Fitzroy and Kensington), many of whom would otherwise end up in hospital emergency departments. Nearly 70% of these patients hold concession cards. For years, the service has been warning both state and federal governments that funding has not kept pace with need. The decision to close these clinics is not sudden – it's the result of a decade of funding neglect.
At a time when rents are skyrocketing, cost of living pressures are crushing households, and public hospitals are buckling under demand, cutting bulk-billing primary care is not just bad policy it's dangerous. Without accessible, local GPs, people will delay care until their conditions become emergencies. That's not just inhumane, it's fiscally reckless: the average emergency department visit costs around $692, compared to around $82 for a GP consultation.
Yarra's community understands this better than anyone. Our city has one of the highest concentrations of public housing in Victoria. In Collingwood alone, more than one in three residents live on a low income. Many walk to cohealth because it's the only clinic that treats them with dignity – no judgement, no bills, just care.
If these clinics close, the fallout will be immediate and profound. Families who can't afford private GPs will go without care. Our hospitals, already under extraordinary pressure, will become the last resort for people who simply need accessible primary care. Otherwise manageable conditions will reach a crisis point, resulting in life-changing or, in some instances, life-threatening consequences.
We won't stand by and let that happen.
That's why I've called an emergency community meeting at Fitzroy Town Hall on Friday, 24 October at 4 pm. Every resident who believes in fairness, compassion and community needs to be there.
cohealth has been asking for a funding upgrade for years. It's time the Victorian and Federal Governments listened. Securing the future of these life-saving services isn't optional – it's a moral imperative.
