All Medicare Urgent Care Clinics are open in Australia from Thursday

Thursday will mark the final step in a promise the Prime Minister told South Australians he would keep before the year’s end.

South Australia’s final Medicare Urgent Care Clinic officially opens on Thursday at Morphett Vale, fulfilling the federal government’s election promise to open 58 centres by the end of 2023.

The southern suburbs centre will be one of two openings on Thursday with a Broome, WA, location also opening on Thursday.

Medicare Urgent Care Clinics (‘Medicare UCC’) are open seven days a week for extended hours and offer walk-in, bulk-billed care.

Dr Jag Singh at the Medicare Urgent Care Clinic at Elizabeth. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Morgan Sette

Five clinics have opened across South Australia under the $135m national plan to ease pressure on hospital emergency departments.

Category four (semi-urgent) and category five (non-urgent) patients account for about 47 per cent of ED presentations a year – almost four million nationally.

At the Medicare UCCs appointments aren’t necessary and doctors and nurses at the clinics will treat conditions such as sprains, broken bones, stitches for cuts, wound care, minor burns, insect bites and minor ear and eye problems.

The centres are located at Elizabeth, Marion, Mount Gambier, Morphett Vale and Royal Park.

Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler said all 58 Medicare UCCs are open. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the Medicare UCCs “practical”. NCA NewsWire/ Emily Barker.

Federal Health Minister Mark Bulter said the opening of all 58 centres means “people across the country over summer who need urgent but not acute care, can get it quickly”.

“When your kid falls off their new Christmas bike, or you get a deep cut on a rock down the beach, instead of spending hours at the Emergency Department you’ll be able to come to a Medicare UCC,” he said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the service “practical” saying it “recognises the time and cost pressures on modern families”.

“We’re also Strengthening Medicare with the biggest investment in over 40 years, with more incentives for bulk billing, making it cheaper and easier for more than 11 million Australians to visit a doctor,” he said.

Originally published as All Medicare Urgent Care Clinics are open in Australia from Thursday