Transcript of media conference with Senator Helen Polley, Julie Collins MHR for Franklin and Michael Ferguson MHA for Bass at Launceston Urgent Care Clinic, 12 July 2023. The new clinic is at 247 Wellington St, Launceston, Tasmania.
Helen Polley
You know only too well the demand that’s been placed on the Launceston General Hospital accident & emergency department for a long time. So as much as this is about consumers, this is about making sure that mum and dad can bring little Timmy down if he’s had a fall and suspects a broken arm, that can come here instead of having to go to accident and emergency, but it’s good for our community.
And I want to acknowledge the doctors for taking up this challenge. I think it’s fantastic. It’s another example where good government is one that will work with the state government as well as the federal government. So it’s great to be here with Minister Collins and of course, Mr Michael Ferguson. So this is exciting, it’s delivering on the Albanese Labor government’s promise that we made during the election campaign. It will be the first centre of course in Launceston that’s going to open which is good news. I know I can’t say that as a Tasmanian senator, but it’s great news for northern Tasmania because we know only too well that unfortunately here in Tasmania, we have some of the highest rates of chronic illnesses in the state. Having this primary care, health care that it’s going to be accessible with the support of the federal government and Medicare is really good. So I’d like to hand over now to Mr Collins.
Julie Collins
Thanks, Helen. It’s great to be here with Senator Polley but also with our state partner. This is about state and federal governments working together to deliver urgent care clinics across Tasmania. We are pleased as the federal government to announce with the state government today that this will be the first Urgent Care Clinic up and operating in Tasmania, the first of four, they will be up and operational from the 31st of July. So to everybody out there that wants to come in, this is a walk up clinic from 2pm to 8pm, seven days a week funded by the state and the federal government, particularly though for the federal government in terms of our urgent care clinics that are around the country.
We are delivering 58 Urgent Care Clinics around the country, for here in Tasmania and Launceston medical clinic here in Launceston will be the first of these Urgent Care Clinics in Tasmania. We do hope to have the other three up and running by the end of the year. And I certainly as a southern Tasmanian and also hope to have some announcements around the Hobart clinic in coming weeks and months. So this is great news for Tasmania, but particularly for the north of the state today, as Senator Polley has indicated and I’m sure Minister Ferguson will talk more about this.
This is about getting people who don’t need to go to emergency clinics to get non-urgent and semi-urgent care rather than ending up in emergency departments. This is about taking pressure off the hospital system, but also recognising just how hard it is to access a GP. All everybody will need when they turn up at this clinic is their Medicare card. That will be bulk billed through your Medicare card. There will be no other charge. You just take your Medicare card when you access this urgent care clinic here in Launceston. I hand over to minister Ferguson.
Michael Ferguson
Yeah, thanks very much, Julie. And it’s great to be here together. And thank you very much to Dr Muir-Wilson and his team here at the Launceston health hub and Cat as the practice manager. And it’s a delight to be here because it’s the case that we need to do everything we can to support affordable and accessible health care here in Tasmania. The Federal Labor Party in the lead up to the election promised three Urgent Care Clinics for Tasmania. Fortunately, through our health performance and health design, we’d already commenced some of the design work here. And the landscape was perfectly poised for a partnership with the Australian government when the Labour Party was elected federally.
Our model, with our funding now that we’ve decided to co invest together 2.7 million of Tasmanian taxpayers money into a model, means that we get not three but four centres here in the state, a better design and a stronger partnership. And it means that we’re able to open the first of the four here in Launceston on the 31st of July. We couldn’t be more happy with the working relationship with the Australian Government and Tasmanians do expect that their politicians will put politics aside work together for the interest of our community. That’s exactly what’s happening here. And with the Launceston General Hospital just a couple of hundred meters away from this particular site, the co-location angle is a very positive one as well for patients that ultimately may need some hospital level care.
But equally there will be patients who will be advised that your non life threatening but still urgent or painful condition, you could be supported down the road at the Urgent Care Clinic. Why don’t you go down there, you’ll be bulk billed? So this is about providing the right care in the right place at the right time. We’re really pleased with the partnership and I just want to say since the Premier is on leave at the present time, our Premier who is our health minister has worked very hard on this with Minister Mark Butler on the Australian government side and I think Tasmanians can be looking forward to enjoying these new services and in many cases, in many cases, getting the care that they need in a more timely fashion.
