The National Home Doctor Service, also known as 13SICK, emailed its Ballarat patients on Tuesday to tell them the service had closed.

The largest home doctor service provider in Australia stated in the email obtained by The Courier the Medicare cut had made recruitment and retention of doctors close to impossible.

“As you can imagine, it is already difficult to get doctors to work in the after-hours period, especially given most of them choose to work during the day rather than drive long distances at night and often in inclement weather at personal risk,” the email reads.

“But this Medicare cut has made recruitment and retention of doctors close to impossible.

“As a result of the government’s cut to Medicare, we have been forced to shut our services in Ballarat as we can no longer recruit the doctors to do the work.”

The NHDS, which is bulk-billed for Medicare card holders, helped just under 3000 patients since it was launched in Ballarat in October 2015.

NHDS data indicates the most common symptoms doctors were treating in Ballarat included acute respiratory infections, acute ear aches and gastro complaints.

Before Christmas in 2017, the government announced major cuts to the Medicare rebates paid to doctors who see patients at home in the after-hours period.

The rebate cut amounted to 24 per cent effective from March 1 and increases to more than 30 per cent by January.

Federal opposition health spokeswoman Catherine King said after-hours home doctor services could help prevent hospital visits.

“I value the important role that after hours home visits play in our health care system. Home visits improve access to primary care outside nine-to-five, and can help to prevent unnecessary and expensive hospital visits,” Ms King said.

“This government has made a complete mess of after-hours services, and have not reinvested savings from their cuts to Medicare after-hours service in improving after-hours care.

“In addition to this their cuts to our hospitals continue to put pressure on emergency departments across the country.”