The incoming Federal Government must address the funding shortage in community health primary care that is making it impossible to recruit doctors, says the operator of a mobile health service that has been forced to close because it can’t find GPs to staff it.   

Cohealth had provided healthcare for people experiencing homelessness out of a bus travelling around Melbourne’s CBD since 2018. 

But mid-last year it had to move the service to one of its clinics staffed by a nurse after failing to recruit a GP for nine months.

The not-for-profit says whoever wins the federal election must change the way community health is funded so it is a more attractive place for doctors to work.