Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Health and Aged Care, Senator Gallagher. There are now 47 Medicare urgent care clinics open across Australia. These clinics are designed to enable Australians to access urgent care in a primary care setting rather than attending a hospital emergency department. Could the minister provide the Senate with an update on recent clinic openings, how many people are using the centres across Australia and how these clinics are helping Australians to access urgent health care when they need it?

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

I thank Senator Bilyk for the question and acknowledge the opportunity I had to visit Family Planning Tasmania with Senator Bilyk to open the endometriosis and pelvic pain clinic this year. It was a great opportunity to again extend primary health care and take pressure off hospital departments.

There are now 47 Medicare urgent care clinics open and operating, including the Alice Springs Medicare urgent care clinic, which opens today. There are 47 clinics up and running, with 58 to be open by the end of the year. As senators know, the Medicare urgent care clinics are open seven days a week, with extended hours. They're open to walk-in patients who need urgent care but for not life-threatening issues either for themselves or for their children. We are seeing some excellent examples of how these clinics are meeting the needs of that patient group.

We had a young patient, with his mum, who went to the Ipswich clinic with a suspected broken wrist from playing basketball. He was triaged in just five minutes. He was seen shortly after by a doctor. He was X-rayed, he was treated with a splint and he was connected for a physio appointment the following week. This was all done within two hours. Another patient took her daughter to the Penrith Medicare urgent care clinic when her daughter sustained a possible ankle fracture from playing soccer. He daughter was seen, X-rayed and discharged with a CAM boot in less than one hour.

The patient's mum said, 'Why would anyone go to the emergency department with this sort of injury when the Medicare urgent care clinic can deal with it so quickly?'

So far across Australia, there have been more than 75,000 presentations to Medicare urgent care clinics. Nearly a third of these patients are under 15 years of age. A third of visits are on the weekend, and on weekdays more than one in five visits have taken place after 6 pm.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Bilyk, first supplementary?

Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was a pleasure to spend time with you in Hobart too, Minister. One of the aims of opening Medicare urgent care clinics is to help ease the pressure on busy emergency departments across the country. Is the minister aware of whether the Medicare urgent care clinics are having any impact on the number of presentations to hospital emergency departments?

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

I thank Senator Bilyk for the supplementary. These clinics are not just providing high quality urgent care when and where people need it; they're doing so free of charge. We are seeing some very pleasing data coming in. I acknowledge that it is early days, but the idea behind the Medicare urgent care clinics was to take, in particular, categories 4 and 5, as they are known in hospital emergency departments—non-urgent or semi-urgent presentations—and to relieve some of the pressure there. It's early days, but, at Logan Hospital in Queensland, category 4 and 5 presentations have gone down by 10 per cent since the Logan Medicare Urgent Care Clinic was opened, and at Ipswich Hospital there's been a 20 per cent reduction in that type of presentation, which obviously has significant benefits for the hospital. So, while it is early days, we are pleased with the results that we are seeing both in the numbers of people using the clinics and in the impact that the clinics are having on hospital EDs.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Bilyk, second supplementary?

Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister, the Medicare urgent care clinics are one way the government is acting to strengthen Medicare. How do the urgent care clinics complement other steps the government is taking to strengthen Medicare, and why is the government so determined to strengthen Medicare after a decade of cuts and neglect?

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

I thank Senator Bilyk for the question. The Medicare urgent care clinics are just one part of our program to strengthen Medicare. In the budget this year, we have had the tripling of the bulk-billing incentive, really making a significant difference. Some doctors groups have called it game-changing in terms of being able to use and continue to use bulk billing for patients. But we have also been delivering cheaper medicines. Again, last week I went through some of the savings that we have seen for people—in the order of $20 million per month—from having cheaper medicines and cheaper scripts. Those things, together with our Medicare urgent care clinics, the work we're doing around workforce and the work we're doing to negotiate a new pharmacy agreement, are all about ensuring that we are strengthening Medicare and making health care accessible and affordable to Australians.