Helping to address the doctor shortage in Sutherland Shire

Kirrawee Family Medical Practice owners Rebekah Hoffman and Annalyse Crane have opened their second practice, at Woolooware.

It's been part of a plan to ensure more patients in the area can see their local GP, as doctors recognised a demand in the community.

"We decided to open the practice because there were no female doctors in the 2230 postcode that had availability for appointments within a week or two," Dr Crane said. "We also found that 50 per cent of our patients from Kirrawee were coming from the Cronulla and Woolooware area, so we saw it as an opportunity to provide the same service we have at Kirrawee.

"A building became available to us which we renovated and turned into a five doctor general practice."

A Royal Australian College of General Practitioner's (RACGP) Health of the Nation report 2023 reveals that GPs are seeing more patients than ever - less than one per cent of people reported being unable to see a GP when they needed to, and the average time GPs spent with patients increased. Almost three in 10 GPs signalled their intention to retire by 2028.

"In the shire the Primary Health Network forecasted that 20 per cent our GPs are over the age of 65 and are likely to retire or close their books within the next five years," Dr Crane said.

"It's really important that the wider community knows that they need to have a GP because it's going to get harder to find a GP locally unless you're known to someone. "

All the doctors at the new Woolooware practice have different special interests including women's and children's health, and Dr Crane specialises in aviation medicine. "This is particularly important because two of our other aviation doctors are about to retire, and there are a lot of flight attendants and pilots who travel to the airport from the shire, and will be needing to find a new GP," she said.

Woolooware Family Medical Practice opened on February 7 and will have an official party launch on March 8.