More Doctors On Their Way?

A new allied health clinic – and in turn more doctors - may be on the cards for Bowen as Whitsunday Regional Council enter into land-sale negotiations with a private developer.

A formal offer for the property at 9D Dalrymple Street, Bowen, was made by PKDS Property Holdings Pty Ltd, who stated their plans to construct an allied health clinic and accommodation to support the attending clinicians.

The announcement of more medical facilities comes as a potential boon for the small town, which was as recently as April this year shaken by news the Queens Beach Medical Centre was planning to permanently close its doors in August due to its two sole physicians retiring – a closure which fortunately did not eventuate.

Instead, the centre was purchased by Dr Ramy Ibrahim, who has since expanded the clinic - which was opened almost four decades ago - to four clinicians, retaining its two potentially retiring, “legendary doctors” and planning to hire more in the future.

Whitsunday Regional Councillors called the scare a “wake up call”, and State Member for Burdekin Dale Last said it would have taken almost 40 per cent of GPs out of Bowen – with only three centres servicing its roughly 12,000 population.

To shore up the Whitsundays far north, Councillors wholeheartedly endorsed the creation of not only a new allied health centre but the corresponding accommodation with it.

Councillor Mike Brunker advocated for the sale and said that this is a time of housing crisis and of a “medical crisis” in Queensland’s rural regions.

Negotiations and standard settlement of the property sale is expected within the next 30 days.

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A new allied health centre is likely to be constructed in Bowen pending Council’s sale of this land in Dalrymple Street