Labor has made a $135 million federal election promise to take pressure off emergency departments and deliver Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, with the Hunter pitched to be among the 50 locations.
On a visit to Cessnock on April 14, opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, said a Labor Government would fund a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic near Cessnock Hospital so families would get the bulk billed urgent medical care they needed.
“Labor’s Medicare Urgent Care Clinics will mean more families will get top-quality care from a nurse or a doctor without having to wait in a hospital emergency department,” Albanese said.
“Medicare Urgent Care Clinics will take the pressure off emergency departments, so they can concentrate on saving lives.
“These clinics are a key part of Labor’s plan to strengthen Medicare by making it easier to see a doctor.”
The clinic would treat sprains, broken bones, cuts, wounds, insect bites, minor ear and eye problems and minor burns.
In a media release, the Labor party revealed out of pocket costs to see a doctor in the Hunter had gone up by 29 per cent.
“Hunter families are already struggling to access emergency care and are under pressure from rising out of pocket costs which only contribute to the strain on household budgets,” the statement read.
“Care at the clinic will be bulk billed, meaning families won’t be left out of pocket for having a loved one attended to, just as if they had gone to the Cessnock Hospital Emergency Department.”
The announcement comes after the GP Access After Hours Service at the Calvary Mater Hospital closed in December due to significant cuts in funding, including Medicare rebate freezes and cuts to bulk-billing incentives.
Opening hours were also reduced at similar clinics, including John Hunter Hospital, Maitland Hospital, Belmont Hospital and Toronto’s Westlakes Community Health Centre.
More than 11,500 constituents signed a petition to save the service, initiated by Federal Member for Newcastle Sharon Claydon.
At the time, Claydon said GP Access had played “a vital role in relieving pressure on our local hospital emergency departments for more than twenty years, treating more than a million patients since its inception”.
“This has been an essential service for tens of thousands of Newcastle families who rely upon bulk-billing GP services to access the healthcare they need when they need it,” she said.
Labor’s new proposed clinics would be open seven days a week from at least 8 am to 10 pm— when most non-life-threatening injuries occur.
Australian Medical Association President, Omar Khorshid, informally known as the architect of Medicare, labelled the proposal “superficially attractive”.
“When you scratch the surface, you see a model that is piecemeal, that fragments care even more, and does nothing to improve the average patient’s experience in primary care,” he said.
“This sounds a lot like the failed GP super clinic model from over a decade ago, one that led to practices being built that ended up competing with local practices, ended up making absolutely zero difference to hospital waiting lists and zero difference to the quality of primary care delivery in the community.
“There are around 8000 general practices around the country, and a measure that allows 50 of them to open after hours is one that’s going to make very little difference to the average Australian.”
In an interview with the ABC, Health economist, Stephen Duckett, said the clinics were “definitely a good idea”, as the model was proven in New Zealand to reduce ED presentations.
“Emergency departments in hospitals are dramatically overwhelmed at the moment, and GPs are also overwhelmed …. and so I think what we’ve got, and what Labor is proposing, is somewhere between emergency departments and GPs,” Duckett said.
“It’s not going to fix the hospital problem, and we shouldn’t pretend that it will, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction.
“I think it’s certainly a step in the right direction, and we should welcome it.”
Maia O’Connor