Urgent Care Clinics Hit 1 Million Visits Across Australia

The clinics take pressure off hospital emergency departments, but not everyone is happy.

Andy Dean Photography/Shutterstock

One million Australians have now visited the nation’s government health insurance system’s urgent care clinics for “free” bulk-billed medical care funded by taxpayers.

Medicare’s Urgent Care Clinics aim to take pressure off busy hospital emergency departments by treating minor injuries and illnesses that do not require emergency room care.

These Clinics provide an accessible alternative for those needing immediate medical attention without life-threatening conditions, such as cuts, sprains, minor fractures and burns, fevers, infections, allergies, and diagnostic services including X-rays and blood tests.

More than 50 percent of patients surveyed claim they would have gone to the local emergency department if a Clinic was unavailable.

The Clinics have become popular with families, as children under 15 years of age make up almost one-third of all visits.

Health Minister Mark Butler emphasised that patients only need their Medicare card to visit an urgent care clinic.

The minister described the Clinics as a “game changer,” noting that they fill a gap in the Australian health system.

“Patients all around the country, including parents and young kids, now don’t have to spend hours waiting in an emergency department for urgent but not life-threatening care,” he said.

Butler added that the government wants every Australian to have access to free urgent healthcare when they need it.

“Our 87 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics mean 70 percent of Australians now live no more than a 20-minute drive from fully bulk billed urgent care, available seven days a week,” he said. “So that wherever you live, urgent care is never far away.”

The Clinics include 22 in New South Wales, 17 in Victoria, 16 in Queensland, 8 each in Western Australia and the Northern Territory, 6 in South Australia, and 5 each in the Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania.

New Clinic in Tasmania

Federal and state parliamentarians opened a new urgent care clinic in Bridgewater on Dec. 5, operated by Your Hobart Doctor and trading as Jordan River Health.

Jacquie Petrusma, Tasmania’s Liberal Health Minister, said the clinic would reduce pressure on the Royal Hobart Hospital and make it easier for people to see a doctor or nurse for urgent care.

“We will continue to work closely with the Federal government to ensure our Medicare Urgent Care Clinics continue meeting the needs of Tasmanian patients,” she said.

However, she added the state of Tasmania deserves more urgent care clinics and said they had consistently made this case to the Federal government.

This Clinic joins four other Tasmanian Clinics, with two in Hobart and one each in Devonport and Launceston, which have seen more than 50,000 patients.

“There have been over 56,600 presentations to the four Medicare Urgent Care Clinics in Tasmania, meaning patients have been able to receive urgent care quickly and for free,” Minister Butler said.

More than 70 percent of GPs support urgent care clinics, according to Healthed research cited by the government.

Urgent Care Clinics ‘Creating Competition’ for GPs

Despite this, urgent care clinics have recently received criticism from the National Council of Primary Care Doctors (NCPCD).

The council said they had “significant concerns” that these Clinics were creating competition for an already stretched workforce supply of GPs and primary care registered nurses.

“With continued expansion, it will also limit the ability of general practices to train the future medical workforce in the clinical skills often required for urgent care-type presentations, creating permanent fragmentation of care in the system,” the council said on Oct. 24 (pdf).

The statement was signed off by leaders from the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, the Australian Medical Association, and the Rural Doctors Association of Australia among others.

The council said they understood that patients need greater access to affordable GP services, but that the solution needs to address fundamental structural issues, as opposed to the pursuit of short-term options that contribute to longer-term issues in the system.

These include “increased costs and more confusion for patients as there are increasing entry points of the health care system, but little to ensure the alignment with evidence-based gold standard primary care models of care.”

Meanwhile, Shadow Health Minister Anne Ruston and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton meet with the Australian Medical Association in the final week of parliament to discuss affordable healthcare.

“We know that right now, it has never been harder or more expensive to see a doctor,” Senator Ruston said in a Facebook post.

Ruston highlighted the Coalition will invest $400 million to grow the next generation of GPs in the future.

“We look forward to continuing to work with health professionals like the AMA on further ways to strengthen our primary healthcare system,” she said.