A message to our veteran community

Public Statement

It is with deep and genuine sorrow that we announce West Coast Health Alliance is closed effective immediately. This is an outcome none of us wanted, and it brings an end to a service built with heart, purpose, and an unwavering commitment to the veteran community in Perth.

Although our doors have now closed, we want every veteran, every family member and every Ex Service Organisation to know that we achieved our original mission: we made veterans better. Over the years, West Coast Health Alliance delivered a comprehensive, GP led model of care that included general practice, psychology, physiotherapy, exercise physiology, psychiatry, dietetics, social work, Coordinated Veterans’ Care (CVC), chronic disease management and mental health treatment plans. We built a place where veterans could receive integrated support, where their stories mattered, and where their wellbeing was at the centre of every decision.

We made veterans better.

We also stood proudly alongside several other organisations who serve veterans across Western Australia. Our partnerships with RSL WA, RSL Joondalup City Sub-branch, Soldiers & Sirens, Invisible Injuries, Buddy Up Australia, and many other community driven groups were an integral piece of our work. Together, we created a genuine northern suburbs Veteran Hub — a place of connection, recovery, and dignity. In many ways, this was a remarkable success story. We proved what a community driven, GP led multidisciplinary model of care could achieve when veterans are placed first. Yet despite the impact and the outcomes, the model was ultimately not sustainable, for reasons beyond our control.

The most significant challenge was the inability to secure GPs — particularly GPs willing to work exclusively in the DVA space. We discovered on our journey that managing DVA patients is not taught as a formal body of knowledge by the RACGP — unlike other vulnerable patient cohorts — leaving a national skills gap that affects every veteran focused medical service. Most GPs simply do not have the training, confidence, or support required to manage DVA patients, and very few are willing to independently learn an entirely separate system of patient management. Compounding this, the DVA has created too many layers of bureaucracy, administrative burdens, and inconsistent processes. We found many GPs actively avoid DVA work because the administration is overwhelming, time consuming, poorly supported and poorly remunerated, making the DVA patient one of the most unattractive in an open market. These two factors — a lack of DVA trained GPs and an increasingly complex administrative environment — made it impossible to sustain a GP led multidisciplinary practice.

A GP led model cannot operate without a GP. Despite every effort, every partnership, every sacrifice, and every attempt to recruit, this barrier could not be overcome. And so, with great sadness, this marks the end of the West Coast Health Alliance.

We are devastated to close, but deeply proud of what we built, the veterans we helped, and the community we stood beside. Thank you to every veteran, every family member, every ESO, and every supporter who trusted us with their care, their stories, and their wellbeing. The Alliance may be closing, but the impact we made together will endure.