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

Yes, I can. Thank you, Senator Grogan. These urgent-care clinics are already proving to be a massive success, taking pressure off emergency departments, open seven days a week, with extended hours. They're bulk billed, and all patients need is their Medicare card. A total of 38 are open, out of 58. There have been more than 60,000 presentations to Medicare urgent-care clinics. Across the country this represents an estimated potential saving to public hospital EDs of more than $15.8 million in patient episodes.

Across the country nearly a third of patients have been under 15 years of age. Nearly a third of visits have taken place on weekends, and on weekdays more than one in five visits have taken place after six o'clock. Urgent-care clinics are already, in their early days, serving local communities across Australia, and they're all going to be open by the end of this year.