Mary Doyle (Aston, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I had the opportunity to host the Minister for Health and Aged Care, the Hon. Mark Butler, in Aston last week, announcing seven additional Medicare urgent care clinics across Victoria. After nine long years of cuts and neglect under the Liberals and Nationals, the Albanese Labor government is working to deliver a stronger healthcare system for all Australians. That is why I'm very excited that we now have a bulk-billed Medicare urgent care clinic in Bayswater. This clinic is open seven days a week, with extended hours, for all those times you need care from a nurse or doctor for issues that are urgent but not life-threatening, without the need to visit an emergency department.

In the 2024-25 budget, the Albanese government provided $227 million to expand the Medicare urgent care clinic program. The seven existing state funded priority primary care centres will transition to the Albanese government's Medicare urgent care clinic network, following a request from the Victorian government.

The urgent care clinic in Bayswater will reduce the number of attendances to local EDs. This is great news for Maroondah Hospital, where a third of presentations to the emergency room are for non-urgent and semiurgent issues. Located at Mountain High Shopping Centre, 7-13 High Street, Bayswater, the Maroondah Medicare urgent care clinic is open from 8 am to 10 pm every day for people in my community.