Treechangers who have moved from Sydney to regional New South Wales say they have been caught unawares by the lack of healthcare services in the bush as rural towns grapple with a critical doctor shortage.
Tourist destination Mudgee, in the state's central west, has seen an influx of young families relocating to the region for its job opportunities and affordable housing in recent years. The town has also proved popular with retirees looking for a lifestyle change.
But the growing Mudgee region is facing one desperate problem - a lack of doctors.
Overwhelmed and understaffed, both of the two medical centres in the town of roughly 12,000 have recently closed their books to new patients, leaving arrivals to the area, or residents who have not visited a doctor in a while, unable to make an appointment with a GP.
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Making the situation worse, the nearby towns of Gulgong and Dunedoo currently have no GPs.
It's a critical healthcare issue that has caught many newcomers to the Mudgee region off guard.
When Lydia Hermo, 58, and her husband Carlos were planning their retirement four years ago, they knew they wanted to get out of the hustle and bustle of Sydney and go rural, but that healthcare would need to be a priority.
Visiting the popular Mudgee region, they were impressed to see a new hospital being built.
"I said to my husband, 'Great, they're building a new hospital. At least the medical services here will be good. We won't have to go to Dubbo or back to Sydney,'" Hermo said.
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The couple took the plunge and bought a 420-acre farm in Turill, around 60 kilometres north of Mudgee and 40 kilometres south of Gulgong.
The treechange has been everything the couple hoped for, but with one big caveat.
"We absolutely love it here. Sydney is way too busy and too expensive," Hermo said.
"Here, it's a quiet life, our neighbours are far away. We just wanted somewhere where we could chill out and that's what we got - except for one thing, there's no doctors."
With no doctor currently treating patients in Gulgong, Hermo said she tried to book an appointment at one of Mudgee's medical centres and was shocked when she was told they were not taking new patients.
"It's really bad. My husband is a diabetic and I have had breast cancer," she said.
"At the moment we're healthy, but it's ridiculous."
Hermo she and her husband were now driving three-and-a-half hours back to Sydney to see their old GP.
"Our kids still live in Sydney, so every time we go to Sydney, we try and get an appointment to get into our doctor there," she said.
The couple are now reluctantly reconsidering their future in the area.
"We were literally only talking a few days ago about how long we think we can stay here before we're going to have to move and go somewhere where there are better medical services," she said.
"We love it here. The thought of having to move from here is something we don't want to do."
Louise Bligh is another retiree who told 9news.com.au she is now driving from Mudgee to Sydney to see a GP.
Bligh grew up in the Mudgee region and then decided to move back to the area with her husband 12 months ago when they retired.
"I've tried to see a doctor and been told that their books are closed," she said.
"We're fortunate that we still have doctors in Sydney, so I will travel back there. And that's fine at the moment, but at some point, we'll get too old to do that."
The 64-year-old said she was caught by surprise at how badly the healthcare situation had deteriorated in Mudgee over the past year.
"When we were making the decision to come here, we knew that it would sometimes take a long time to see a doctor of your choice, but if you needed to see a doctor you could see a doctor. It's only recently that they have closed their books," she said.
Bligh said the situation was also affecting young families, like her son and daughter-in-law, who moved to the area a few years ago.
Her daughter-in-law had just had a baby and was therefore able to see a doctor when needed, her son was not, Bligh said.
"My son hasn't been to a doctor here so he is not in the system," she said.
While the region offered so much to people moving to the area, the struggling rural healthcare system was also a factor that treechangers needed to take into account, Bligh said.
"You hear the politicians saying, 'Move to the country areas, there are jobs and cheaper houses and you get more family time, but there is certainly a downside to the reality of moving to a rural area," Bligh said.
Bligh said her own situation of having to drive back to Sydney to see a GP was untenable in the long term.
"My husband and I are both fortunate in that we're in relatively good health now. But who is to say what might happen in five years time?
"If you can't get into a doctor and you end up with a chronic condition then it's not sustainable to live here."
Local residents have expressed fears the doctor shortage will get even worse as the population in the Mudgee region booms.
Treechangers have made up only a small part of Mudgee's growth.
Thousands of workers are moving to the region to take up jobs on renewable energy projects.
An independent report commissioned by the Mid-Western Regional Council and released at the beginning of this year predicts the region's population will increase by 40 percent, or 10,000 people by 2026.
Mudgee MP Edward Lee told WIN News last week the GP shortage was leading to more people being forced to visit the emergency room and placing extra pressure on an already strained local hospital.
"We're completely overwhelmed and we can't safely follow up the current patients that we have," he said.
The Western NSW Primary Health Network, which looks after the hiring and supply of GP services in the area, said in a statement to 9news.com.au it was looking at a range of solutions to the current doctor shortage in the Mudgee area.
The network was in ongoing discussions with the Department of Health about a possible grant to develop a "Hub and Spoke Model" from Dubbo to support practices in Wellington, Dunedoo, Gulgong and Mudgee, a spokesperson said.
Western NSW Primary Health Network was also working with nursing and midwifery associations to see how it could further develop alternative models of care to support the delivery of primary health care, the spokesperson said.
Independent federal MP Andrew Gee recently put a spotlight on the rural GP crisis in the state's central west by launching a Change.org petition earlier this month, which has so far attracted more than 8000 signatures.
Speaking in parliament during question time, Gee said the crisis was "a disgrace that will cost lives".
While he specifically highlighted the situation in Mudgee, the member for Calare said there were other rural communities hurting too.
"From our smaller communities like Canowindra and Gulgong to our larger regional centres like Wellington, Lithgow and Mudgee, our communities are being left without doctors," Gee said in the petition.
Do you have a story? Contact reporter Emily McPherson at emcpherson@nine.com.au
