pains and they won't see me," he said. One caller was distressed that a medical centre was charging each patient $50 to take their medical records: "I don't have $50 and you can't claim it back. How can they justify the fee?" the caller said. A woman said she just gave up when she heard the length of some doctors' waiting lists. "Newstead said they had 400 waiting and Rose Cottage said they had 300 waiting," she said. THE sudden "disorderly release of 3000 people without a doctor" after last week's closure of the Five Ways Medical Centre in Launceston had created an unprecedented problem, according to the Australian Medical Association's Dr Andrew Jackson.

"In the southern suburbs we suddenly have thousands of people released into the community and a system that is inflexible," Dr Jackson said.

He said one doctor was using a senior practice nurse to take medical records for new patients at a cost of $50.

Dr Jackson said the system had merit because the nurse was taking patient details and getting their medical records into the practice system.

"It makes it a lot easier when the new patient has to see a doctor if all the groundwork has already been done," Dr Jackson said.

He bemoaned the lack of an item number for the valuable nursing service.

"If a practice nurse sees those people and enters their information into the practice system and sets new patients up Medicare should recognise that service with an item number so the patient can claim the $50 back," Dr Jackson said.

With the closure of the Five Ways practice, most patients just wanted to know that when they got sick in the future they had their names registered with a doctor.