Suburban Rail Loop rent hikes could drive out Box Hill health clinic

The Victorian Department of Health has so far not committed to extending the $520,000 annual rental subsidy it provides to healthAbility beyond the expiry of the clinic’s current lease.

In response to questions from The Age, the Allan government declined to assure the clinic’s future in Box Hill beyond next year. “We will continue to work with communities every step of the way including in the delivery of essential services and programs for people in need, and local feedback will be really important in building and shaping these growing neighbourhoods,” a government spokesman said.

Another major tenant within the building is Eastern Health, the public health network that runs Box Hill Hospital. Eastern Health is planning to shift its services to a new building in central Box Hill still under construction.

Federal Liberal MP Keith Wolahan, whose seat of Menzies covers Box Hill, raised the clinic’s plight in parliament this year. “HeathAbility delivers valued frontline care, but it’s been left behind by a Labor government that’s all spin and no substance,” he told this masthead.

Despite Wolahan’s electorate of Menzies being a marginal seat, neither side of politics has proposed a solution during the election campaign.

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Unless an accommodation can be found, state government planning policies intended to provide better public transport and more housing for people in Box Hill could have the perverse consequence of forcing out a clinic that last year received $26.5 million in combined Commonwealth and state government funding to provide health services to the same, fast-growing population.

Box Hill’s population is forecast to double between now and 2041. The Suburban Rail Loop Authority calculates that over the same period, the population within a proposed structure plan area earmarked for high-density development near the train station will swell from 13,300 to 29,100 people.

Box Hill was earmarked for high density development and population growth before the SRL was conceived. In 2007, it was identified in the state government’s population planning as a future urban centre and later designated as a metropolitan activity centre, where planning laws allow for greater density development.

The Allan government last month published its latest draft planning laws covering Box Hill and other proposed SRL stations. The planning scheme is due to be finalised next year.

A survey of 905 patients conducted by healthAbility this month found that 84 per cent of respondents had a healthcare or concession card, and 77 per cent said it would be much harder for them to access the health services they need if the clinic moved away from Box Hill.

Selina, a patient at the clinic since it opened in Box Hill, is one of three generations of her family who uses its services. Two years ago, she was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes by one of the clinic’s specialist teams. After she struggled to come to terms with the diagnosis, she was referred to one of the clinic’s psychologists.

“We all like to come here,” Selina said. “Traffic is easy. There is a bus terminus at Box Hill Central [shopping centre] and good trains and heaps of car parks. This is a very good, elderly-supportive community centre. Why move it away?”

A retired pianist, Selina volunteers as an English teacher and says the clinic has a strong connection to Mandarin- and Cantonese-speaking Chinese communities in Box Hill. The clinic last year served just under 25,000 clients.

Jarbin said the clinic was well-known within Box Hill and moving it away would have a significant impact on people who depended on its services. “The most vulnerable members of the community from Box Hill and surrounding suburbs will lose a really vital service on which they rely for their health and wellbeing,” she said.

Nillumbik Community Health Services was established 50 years ago. Its clinics in Box Hill and Eltham provide services not covered by Medicare.

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