IMAGE: Dr Draper hopes to use his struggles through COVID and the recent flood event in Fobes to advocate for GP’s to be included in national and state emergency response plans.
Forbes Medicine & Mind is a multi-disciplinary family practice in Forbes that was Opened in 2018 after a full and complete refurbishment of the 12 Cross st address to transform it into a medical practice.
Managing Director Courtney Hodges said “After 12 months of trading, COVID-19 hit. We went straight into COVID then for three years and we pretty much came up for air and then Forbes flooded”.
During the November 2022 floods the practice had water enter the property and rise 40cm inside, just enough to ruin everything, electrical, cabling, floors, All the gyprock needed to come out, so the building was going to need a full repaint.
“We had literally fully refurbished this place in 2018, spent several hundreds of thousands of dollars fitting it out, for it to all need to be redone four years later. It was a massive blow and displaced us for six months, during that time we operated from the Boys to the Bush building here. They were really generous and had some rooms available that they let us move into while we renovated” said Courtney.
Dr Richard Draper was recently awarded the RACGP GP of the Year award. The award is great as it recognises Dr Draper’s contribution to the local community during the floods, but Courtney says “for us it’s bigger than that, Richard is a born and bred, Parkes local, he has practiced for 30 years in the Central West as a solo practitioner, he is so dedicated to his community that he worked from his kitchen bench during the floods”. Richard is hoping to use the recognition from the award to “shine a light on the massive blind spot that our government has around primary care, because general practitioners are funded by the federal government, but natural disasters are state funded, so for GP’s there has been no support” , said Courtney.
“We are in a rural community where we can’t attract doctors to our town, the doctors that are here are really on the edge of burnout, and we’ve had to pull money out of our Superannuations so that we can rebuild and go again, so that we can deliver a community service, because we are a private organisation, there was/is no support”
So far the practice has only been able to access the same $50,000 business grant that was available to all other businesses affected during the flood, but shockingly, no further support. Dr Draper said “I basically pumped my retirement into rebuilding this place. I’d really love for the government to realise that we are an essential service to Forbes and put my super back, and Courtney’s super too”.
Dr Draper had no idea he had been nominated for the GP of the Year award and said he was “Genuinely stunned”, and is hoping in the next 12 months to use his recognition as GP of the Year recipient to say “this is not good enough”.
The flooding event of Nov 2022 saw water slowly rise and then completely take over the Forbes Medicine & Mind practice.
Once the water receded it was time to get the clean up started so that renovations could begin and it was all hands on deck.
Forbes Medicine & Mind reopened at 12 Cross St on the 16th of April this year after the devastating 2022 floods destroyed their practice.
Dr Richard Draper and Medicine & Mind Managing Director Courtney Hodges celebrating Dr Drapers recent GP of the Year award.