Private ‘super clinic’ opens after six-month delay

IT LOOKS like a GP super clinic, works like a GP super clinic, but is a private practice. 

The new all-purpose Omega Medical Centre, five kilometres north-west of Cairns, opened for business last week in parallel to the government’s own $650 million grant-fuelled program.

“You could almost call it a private super clinic,” said GP Dr Uri Scelwyn, who has spent two-and-a-half years bringing the project to life.

“Apart from the GP side, we’ve got a skin cancer clinic, we’ve got a breast physician and an oncologist who are going to start. We’ve got our own indigenous health worker, because there’s obviously a very large Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population here.”

That is in addition to a diabetes clinic and nine GPs. 

The location, with a high incidence of chronic disease, few after hours services nearby and a stretched local hospital, is in a designated