Thousands of vulnerable Melburnians will be cut off from free medical checks after funding shortfalls forced one of Australia’s largest community health organisations to axe many of its services and close its oldest clinic.

Cohealth said its decision to stop providing GP and counselling services at its Kensington, Fitzroy and Collingwood clinics by December was due to “significant funding challenges”.

The organisation will also sell its 75-year-old Collingwood clinic, housed in a dilapidated building with leaking ceilings and cracked walls. This clinic – which also provides pharmacy services, including opioid replacement therapy – will close in the middle of next year.

Cohealth is blaming the situation on inadequate Medicare rebates for complex patients – a federal responsibility – and

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