An “obviously rural” practice operating with no town water, sewerage or street lights — and located 45 minutes from the nearest hospital — is crying foul after health officials declared it was in a major city for Medicare purposes.

The Tamborine Mountain Medical Practice in the Gold Coast hinterland stands to lose more than $100,000 in bulk-billing incentives and rural loadings payments after being reclassified as metropolitan by the Department of Health.

From July, the department is changing the map it uses to determine which practices can access rural incentives, which means about 5700 GPs — including those at Tamborine Mountain — will see reduced rural loadings and payments from Medicare.

According to the department, the system, known as the Modified Monash Model, is completely objective in determining rurality and based on the best available evidence from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.