The Australian government has opened 75 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics nationwide to alleviate the strain on emergency departments. These clinics, staffed by GPs and nurses, offer bulk-billed services and are open late and on weekends. While the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners has criticized the clinics for duplicating existing GP services, patients like Nicole Reynolds who sustained an injury at a school netball game appreciate the quicker alternative to overcrowded EDs.
The Albanese government opened Medicare Urgent Care Clinics around the country in an effort to ease pressure on emergency departments .
Medicare Urgent Care Clinic, one of 75 opened across the country by the federal government since June 2023."The school said I need to get checked out. So I came here thinking that it would be a bit quicker than the emergency department on a Friday," she told 7.30.Ms Reynolds' experience is what Urgent Care Clinics were designed to do – relieve the pressure on emergency departments.
All of this is designed to give people who can't see a GP and need urgent care an alternative to overcrowded EDs."This is a new model of care for Australia. It's very common in other countries to which we usually compare ourselves. It's very deeply entrenched, for example, over in New Zealand, that has really significantly lower presentations to their hospital EDs."
"If we funded general practice to the tune of what we're doing urgent care centres, we'd be able to increase that capacity and see people on the day and continuity of care seeing a regular GP," said RACGP president Dr Nicole Higgins. "If you've got a sore ear and if … you took that child to the GP, just under $43. If you took your child to the urgent care centre, it would cost the taxpayer just under $300."
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