A medical group which has three practices in Ballarat has confirmed the city's clinics will remain open for business, after difficulties in other regional towns.
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The Tristar Medical Group have stated there are 'no planned closures in the foreseeable future' for its medical practices in Lucas, Ballarat Central and Sebastopol.
It has been a troubling period for the medical clinic group, with Australian Community Media revealing on Wednesday that a senior doctor at Murtoa, Minyip and Rupanyup clinics had left the region, leaving the three towns without a single GP.
In a separate story, Wangaratta's Dr Reno Riandito told Australian Community Media in early August he was owed six weeks pay by the medical group he had worked for since 2015, but shortly after speaking with the media four weeks worth of wages were transferred into his bank account.
When asked by The Courier if Ballarat-based doctors had been paid their salaries and entitlements up to August 14, Tristar Medical Group's director of clinical operations Anne Gardner said "contracted Doctors are paid in consultation with agreed payment terms with our independent contractors".
In a separate media release, she said that "Tristar employees have all been paid in full and on time".
Ms Gardner said one of the clinics in Ballarat recently closed for a period, but this was because the doctor took study leave ahead of exams.
"Having said this - we have additional GP's expected to commence their practice in Ballarat in the near future to assist with the demand and ability for the Practices to cover times when the existing Doctors wish to take time off to prepare and sit exams," she said.
Ms Gardner noted that Tristar had been unable to recruit another GP to the Wimmera region to replace the doctor who covered Murtoa, Minyip and Rupanyup because of ongoing financial pressures.
But said the company had completed 90 per cent of a restructure and would continued "to provide bulk billed services under the restructured business model."
Ms Gardner said changes to government regulations and the ongoing Medicare freeze was making it difficult health services across regional Victoria to continue.
"There have been large numbers of medical practices close across the nation in regional and remote Australia due to the impacts of skilled migration policy changes and an economically non-viable regulatory process for doctors' training pathways in general practice," she said.
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