A quiet Shell Cove corner block will be the site for the Federal Government's $2.5 million Shellharbour GP super clinic.
The Government said yesterday it had awarded the tender for the facility to the Illawarra Division of General Practice.
The clinic will be built at the corner of Cove Boulevard and Shallows Dr, on land set aside for the purpose by Shellharbour Council.
The division's vision for the funding is in line with the Government's "one-stop-shop" for primary health care, bringing together general practitioners, practice nurses, allied health professionals, specialists and pathology services.
The clinic will also incorporate a region-first specialist lifestyle medicine centre, with exercise facilities, a neighbourhood walking group and health management programs for people with diabetes, heart disease and obesity.
"We're trying to develop a general practice that engages the community for things other than getting a jab in the arm," said Movement Medicine director Daryl Sadgrove, whose group will run the centre in partnership with the division.
"This will be the first one in the Illawarra that has a complete lifestyle clinic - it's going to be by far the most advanced centre of its type," he said.
According to a survey by the Mercury late last year, Shellharbour is the region's worst-served suburb for general practice, with one GP for every 6596 residents. In the Shellharbour local government area there is one GP for every 2200 people.
The super clinic is intended to appeal to new GPs, who are considered less likely to commit to one specialty or location in their working life.
Young doctors at the super clinic will be limited to working six sessions or half days per week to distribute the GP workforce more evenly throughout the Illawarra.
Experienced GPs will also be restricted to working part-time. "They will be strongly encouraged to also work in other Illawarra practices or in the local emergency department," Illawarra Division of General Practice chairperson Dr John McAlpine said.
City Coast Country Training Limited (CCCTL), a medical education provider in the Illawarra, has indicated it will use the super clinic development to lobby for more GP training places in the region, capitalising on an extra 312 places promised nationally by 2011.
"It is important that the super clinic can be supported without impacting on the workforce of other training practices in the region - this is the aim of our negotiations with the Commonwealth over the next few months," CCCTL chief Sharon Flynn said.
It's still unknown who will head the super clinic, which is to open in January 2011.
Member for Throsby Jennie George, who campaigned on the region's GP shortage, said the service would take pressure off the Shellharbour Hospital emergency department.
Work on site should begin by the end of this year.
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