Media release – Mark Butler MP, Minister for Health and Aged Care, 17 April 2023
Medicare Urgent Care Clinics expand in Tasmania
Following keen interest and extensive collaboration between the Australian Government and Tasmanian Government, an additional Medicare Urgent Care Clinic (Medicare UCC) will be established in Tasmania, taking the total number of Medicare UCCs to be established in the state to 4.
Medicare UCCs will soon provide bulk-billed care for locals with urgent medical needs over extended hours, 7 days a week.
Medicare UCCs will offer high-quality care for people who need to see a health professional with an urgent, but not life-threatening, problem.
These clinics, to be established in Devonport, Launceston and 2 in Hobart, will be funded by the Australian Government and the Tasmanian Government, with the intent to see patients as soon as practicable by the middle of the year.
More than 41% of presentations to emergency departments in Tasmania are classified as semi- or non-urgent.
The Medicare UCCs will accept walk-in patients and offer Tasmanian families more ways to get affordable medical care at short notice.
At the same time, the clinics will ease pressure on major hospitals across the state, allowing them to concentrate on higher-priority emergencies.
Providers are being identified through a Tasmanian Government tender process, which follows an Expression of Interest that closed earlier this year.
Quotes attributable to Minister Butler:
“Medicare UCCs are just one way the Australian Government is strengthening Medicare.
“Instead of spending hours in an emergency department, local patients will be able to visit a Medicare UCC, be seen by highly trained doctors and nurses, get X-rays or blood tests, and they will be bulk billed.”
Quotes attributable to Premier Rockliff:
“There is nothing more important than affordable, accessible healthcare in our communities.
“The Tasmanian Government understands the important role that the primary healthcare sector plays in caring for our community and we look forward to seeing the establishment of Medicare Urgent Care Clinics across all regions of Tasmania.
“By providing more affordable, accessible healthcare in the community, we can reduce the number of people coming into needing care in an acute hospital setting, relieving some of the demand pressures we are now seeing in our hospitals.
“Our Government will continue to engage with the Australian Government to ensure these centres are established as quickly as practical, so that Tasmanians can get the right care, in the right place, at the right time.”
Media release – Kristie Johnston MP, independent MHA for Clark, 17 April 2023
Bulk-Bill Clinics Welcome, But …
I was pleased to see today’s media reports that four Urgent Care Clinics (UCC) have been announced for Tasmania, with two to be located in Hobart.
I have been highlighting for years now the dire shortage, particularly in the northern suburbs, of GPs who bulk-bill, so hopefully these clinics will go a long way to filling that void, although the media statement is scant on detail.
For example, where are the Hobart clinics to be located? It is essential, in my view that one of clinics must be established north of Creek Road. So many of my constituents in the northern suburbs have mobility issues and need their doctor to be close at hand, in the community where they live. Accessibility is just as important as availability.
And there must be questions over staffing of these clinics. Where are the doctors and nurses going to come from? In a radio interview recently, respected Claremont GP Graeme Alexander said there is little understanding among politicians of the mood pervading GPs as they struggle to cope. Most have had enough. They feel they are not supported by governments resulting with many leaving general practice for good. Will these UCCs help bring doctors back to general practice, or will they poach doctors from existing practices?
The AMA is certainly concerned. The Tasmanian president, Dr John Saul, has said today that the UCCs risk undermining existing practices, and I also note UTAS demographer Professor Lisa Denny has questioned where the medical staff will come from.
An overriding concern for me is the vagueness of who exactly these clinics will treat. All-comers, or will there be some form of triage to only see urgent cases? If so, what determines “urgent”? Will anyone be turned away? After all, “urgent” is in the title, which indicates there will be some form of cut-off, some sort of threshold.
If so, I’d hate to be the one who has to say “Go away, you’re not urgent enough”.
