New Medicare urgent care clinics coming to Ali Curung, Lajamanu, and Galiwin’ku

From the Top End to the Red Centre, Territorians now have three new urgent care clinics to choose from if they need medical attention. Find out where they are.

Palmerston Medicare Urgent Care Clinic. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Territorians now have more options to choose from when seeking urgent medical care, thanks to three new urgent care clinics opening in locations from the Top End to the Red Centre.

New urgent care clinics are now open in Ali Curung, Lajamanu, and Galiwin’ku, in what federal health and aged care minister Mark Butler called a “game changer”.

“More than a third of all visits to Medicare urgent care clinics in the NT are from people under 15, giving parents peace of mind that when their kids need urgent care they’ll be seen,” he said.

“The three additional Medicare Urgent Care Clinics are a game changer for remote and First Nations communities.”

Central Australian Aboriginal Congress chief executive Donna Ah Chee called the Alice Springs urgent care clinic a success and welcomed the expansion.

Federal health and aged care minister Mark Butler talks to a worker at the Alice Springs Urgent Care Clinic on Monday, December 16.

“I’m getting personal text messages from local community people, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, about the quality of the care and the accessibility of the care of this really important service,” she said.

“What this does is recognise that work and put the important enhanced resources into those communities to ensure that they’re actually enhancing the quality of care that they’re providing in their local communities.

“I just can’t underestimate how important this actual service is to the whole community of Alice Springs, and to hear that it’s being extended more broadly is just absolutely wonderful.”

Lingiari MP Marion Scrymgour said the new clinics were co-located with existing services and would ease pressure on local primary health providers.

The three new clinics bring the total number of urgent care clinics in the Territory to eight, joining existing clinics Alice Springs, Palmerston, Alyangula, Maningrida and Wurrumiyanga.

So far, more than 30,000 Territorians had used an urgent care clinic, Mr Butler said.

Originally published as New Medicare urgent care clinics coming to Ali Curung, Lajamanu, and Galiwin’ku