THIRTY workers will be retrenched when New England Medicare Local closes its Armidale office in June.
It is one of 61 such centres across Australia that will be replaced with just 30 primary health networks.
Medicare Local provides community health services such as Aboriginal primary health care, mental health care and immunisation to more then 1000 customers in Armidale.
It was introduced by the Rudd government in 2011. Prime Minister Tony Abbott promised to keep the centres, however, they were cut under last year’s budget.
Chief executive Graeme Kershaw said options for retrenched workers remained unclear.
“Those who are eligible will be provided with redundancy payments as well as their statutory entitlement,”Mr Kershaw said.
But with the uncertainty of employment, staff had begun to look for jobs elsewhere.
Uncertainty also remained over availability of services after the closure, Mr Kershaw said.
Department of Health spokeswoman Kay McNeise said strategies would be put in place “to ensure minimal disruption to primary health care services”.
New England Medicare Local has applied to be a combined Primary Health Network with the Hunter and Central Coast regions.
Mr Kershaw said the outcome of the application was originally meant to be advised in early March, however, the announcement could now be delayed until mid May.
“At the time of this report we, as an applicant organisation, have not received any advice on the status of our application,” Mr Kershaw said.
