Hub4Health’s Janet Drummond said the area will have worse health outcomes in the next two years. 

“We’ve done preventative health care so well in the past. That’s where you’re not seeing the development of the chronic health cares issues you might in the future,” she said.  

The facility has been moved to a self-funded organisation in a bid to offer the services that were cut by the federal government in January. 

Ms Drummond said that residents will feel the price pinch to the services it is still trying to provide. 

“We cannot subsides programs that we previously used to … we used to subsidise podiatry, dietitians, now none of those preventative health care facilities can be subsidised any longer,” she said. 

“There is a greater cost to the community.”

Ms Drummond said Hub4Health’s goal was work in partnership with other organisations, such as the Break O’Day Council and the Royal Flying Doctor Service, to stay relevant to the community. 

The centre provides mental health and rural outreach workers, as well as an exercise physiologist, as well as works with the St Marys District School to have a youth worker. Early childhood interventions services, StGiles, and Carers Australia also work from the site. 

“We are still hosting the networking meetings and we host those so that all the health care providers in the area can come together and exchange information about what they offer so that we’re all of the same page,” Ms Drummond said. 

Because allied services were cut, Ms Drummond said she has “real concern” for the region’s preventative health. 

Ms Drummond said the shift to a self-funded organisation was about “trying to stay in the game” and ensuring its a voice for the services locals require. 

The changes came into effect in January, but started affecting Hub4Health in August. The services were cut when the federal government moved into funding chronic diseases and ongoing health issues such as cardiac diseases and diabetes.