Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Since Monday 15 March this year, locals living in southern Perth, in my electorate of Swan, have had a new way to get urgent help for non-life-threatening injuries: through the new St John urgent care centre in Cannington. The member for Cowan and yourself, Deputy Speaker Goodenough, being from WA, will be aware that St John WA is a charitable, non-profit humanitarian organisation teaching first aid to the community and delivering the state's ambulance services, while also shaping and leading the sector nationally.

St John has been servicing and operating as an integral part of the Western Australian community for more than 130 years. St John's purpose is to serve humanity and build resilient communities through relief of sickness, distress, suffering and danger. It makes first aid a part of everyone's life, delivering high-quality and cost-effective ambulance services to Western Australians and providing appropriate, timely and equitable access to the health system for unscheduled care.

The new urgent care centre in Cannington can treat all sorts of injuries that would normally send someone to the emergency department. They can treat sprains or broken bones, minor ear and eye problems, minor burns or scalds, insect and animal bites, sports injuries, or cuts that need stitches or glue. The Australian government provided $28 million, through the 'Guaranteeing Medicare—strengthening primary care' 2019-20 budget measure, to St John WA to trial urgent care centres to see how effective they were in reducing ambulance ramping and the demand on emergency departments. Highly trained doctors and nurses will treat possible sprains or broken bones, minor eye and ear problems, minor burns or scalds, insect and animal bites, sports injuries, cuts that need stitches or glue, and, if necessary, will provide X-rays, pathology and follow-up treatments such as plaster and urgent dental care. The St John urgent care centres do not require appointments and will bulk-bill when a patient is on a relevant benefit. Together, seven urgent care centres—four new and three existing—are expected to treat 231,000 patients a year in WA. Approximately one-third, or 77,000, of these patients would normally present at public hospital emergency departments.

The Australian government funding will help to evaluate how effective the urgent care centre model is in providing high-quality care and reducing pressure on emergency departments. This funding will see four new centres in WA, with Midland opening next month and Osborne Park and Mandurah soon joining the Cannington site. St John WA has another three sites, located in Joondalup, Coburn and Armadale, already operational. Together, the seven sites will form an integrated network across the Perth metropolitan area. The urgent care centre in Cannington will deliver on the government's commitment to ensuring all Australians can access quality health care from 8 am to 10 pm, seven days a week. I congratulate the government on this funding and trial.