Community & Business
16 September, 2025
Health care model in spotlight
MAREEBA’S community-led healthcare model has hit the national stage and is being viewed as an example of what other communities could do to improve their health services.
Mareeba and Communities Family Healthcare (MCFHC) chair Ross Cardillo presented the model at the Parliamentary Friends of Rural Health event in Canberra recently.
At the launch of the landmark report, The Forgotten Health Spend: The Expenditure Deficit in Rural Australia last month, Mr Cardillo shared the platform with National Rural Health Alliance (NRHA) chief executive officer Susi Tegen.
Together, they highlighted Mareeba’s model of care, the Primary Rural Integrated Multidisciplinary Health Service (PRIM-HS) and the broader challenges facing rural Australians.
The report, commissioned by the NHRA, provided updated 2023-24 financial year expenditure estimates, the social and economic context and system-based challenges.
It found people living in rural and remote areas received $1,090 less in healthcare spending per person every year than their urban counterparts – a gap that had grown by $110 per person since the previous report in 2020-21.
Mr Cardillo said this came as no surprise.
“This report puts numbers to what our communities know only too well. The shortfall is more than just a figure – it means people are waiting longer, travelling further, and missing out on essential healthcare services altogether,” he said.
Mr Cardillo was the only representative of a community-led health service to present in Canberra, and the feedback has been very good.
“I even had a person from the audience embrace me after the presentation,” he said.
“What we’re doing in Mareeba is not being done anywhere else, which is why nationally there’s so much interest.
“And it is working. We have lifted our number of doctors from 2.5 to six in four years.”
The MCFHC was developed in 2020 with a vision to improve access to quality health services through a community-owned social enterprise model.
Within MCFHC, there is a medical clinic for individuals and families; the Black Cockatoo Foundation, which focuses on community engagement, health promotion, education and awareness about critical health issues; and the Mareeba Health Workforce Alliance which offers training, scholarships and professional development opportunities to meet the unique needs of the Mareeba region.
“Our community has set an example of what can be achieved when communities work together locally,” Mr Cardillo said.
“Right now, in Mareeba, we’re building a sustainable model of care that puts people at the centre – and it’s clear Canberra is taking notice.”
Mr Cardillo said the partnership formed with the NRHA had meant access to data and research gathering to formulate the Mareeba model, as well as providing a national perspective.
“I always said that joining with NRHA would open the doors to decision makers,” he said.
He was regularly being asked to give presentations about the Mareeba model, was in contact with leading health professionals and government advisory groups, and generally, was “popping up everywhere”, he joked.
The MCFHC and NRHA partnership has drawn support from the Federal Government’s Innovative Models of Care grant, which opened the way for the PRIM-HS Mareeba Community Primary Care Trial – the first of its kind to enable communities to co-design services and address workforce shortages head-on.
“Now we just need the support to grow our services,” Mr Cardillo said.
Ms Tegen said the Mareeba example showed what was possible when rural communities were empowered to lead.
“Mareeba demonstrates the kind of innovation we need to see replicated across the country. Community-led, collaborative healthcare models where health, industry and local government work together are the way forward,” she said.
“The voices of communities like Mareeba must be heard at the national table if we are to close the rural health gap.”
The Forgotten Health Spend report is available at www.ruralhealth.org.au/the-forgotten-health-spend-report/
