Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Bilyk for the question. It's an important question about Medicare and about new models of care, with the Medicare urgent care clinics that we promised during the election. We are delivering on that promise. The first 30 of the 58 Medicare urgent care clinics have opened their doors and are helping Australians to get timely and affordable access to the health care they need. We have committed $493 million over five years to establish these Medicare urgent care clinics. This is a new approach to providing care for people who require medical treatment urgently but don't need an ambulance or a hospital stay. The Medicare urgent care clinic provides another option for people to seek the medical care that they need. These clinics are open extended hours, seven days a week. They're being established in existing general practices and community health centres, to make the best use of existing facilities and leverage the existing workforce. All of the services provided by the Medicare urgent care clinics are bulk-billed, with highly trained doctors and nurses to provide care at the Medicare urgent care clinics with no need for an appointment. The urgent care clinics deliver service from the time people walk in right through to fixing people up, so that the people then leave without putting pressure on emergency departments.

This morning I joined with the ACT Chief Minister, Andrew Barr, to announce that from today Medicare urgent care clinics will be integrated across the very successful Canberra Health Services walk-in centres across Canberra Health Services' five locations at Gungahlin, Belconnen, Dickson, Weston and Tuggeranong. Funding to integrate the walk-in centres with the urgent care clinic network will increase the number of nurses and allied health professionals to increase coverage at all centres. Open seven days a week across extended hours, all services will be fully bulk-billed. The clinics are jointly funded, with the Commonwealth providing $7.1 million over three years to the ACT government for this purpose.