Bulk billing urgent care clinic opens at Browns Plains to cut hospital waiting times

A new Medicare Urgent Care Clinic has opened to take the burden off the Logan Hospital, where waiting times can be more than six hours.

Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Health Minister Shannon Fentiman at the opening of the Urgent Care clinic at Browns Plains, Logan today. Picture: Supplied

A new Medicare Urgent Care Clinic has opened on Brisbane’s southside to take the burden off the Logan Hospital.

The clinic, which began operating today at Browns Plains Medical and Dental Centre, is open extended hours, seven days a week, easing pressure on nearby Logan Hospital.

The Logan facility is one of 11 Medicare UCCs planned to open across the state by the end of the year with others proposed for Bundaberg, Ipswich, Rockhampton, Cairns, Southern Brisbane, Northern Brisbane, Gold Coast, Redcliffe, Townsville and Toowoomba.

Queensland health data showed that more than 22 per cent of the current emergency department cases presenting at Logan Hospital were classified as semi or non-urgent.

The new clinic is at a medical centre at Browns Plains. Picture: Google

Rankin MP and Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the clinic was designed to help reduce some of those cases to allow the hospital to focus on higher-priority emergencies.

“This is a great win for families in our community – making it cheaper and easier to see a doctor and easing pressure on the local hospital,” Mr Chalmers said.

“More bulk billing is one of the best ways we can help to ease the cost of living in our community without adding to inflation and that’s what this is all about.

“It will ensure local families can get bulk billed care when and where they need it, without an appointment.

“From broken bones to burns, coughs, colds or cuts – you can head straight to the clinic rather than to the emergency department.

“This centre will deliver quicker care, closer to home for lots of people at the same time as we free up the hardworking doctors and nurses at Logan Hospital to focus on saving lives.”

Logan Village GP Dr Melissa Ford said the success of the clinic would depend on staffing and the hours it opened along with the number of bulk billing services on offer in Logan.

Last year, nine Logan doctors’ surgeries stopped offering bulk billing consultations.

Medical practices at Waterford, Logan Village, Upper Coomera, Cornubia, Rochedale, Marsden, and Eagleby, stopped or slashed free consultations.

The new clinic will open from 8am to 8pm for a month and then until 10pm in September. Picture: Supplied

Dr Ford said the new clinic may help poorer patients, who were not seeing doctors because they could not afford to pay the upfront $90 consultation fee, of which they would get back $41.20 under Medicare.

She said it was too early to determine if the clinic would help cut waiting times at Logan Hospital to reduce

“We did ask the government why a clinic such as this was not put in the unused outpatients facility at Logan Hospital, which was how it used to be done, instead of away from the hospital,” Dr Ford said.

“Most urgent care patients present after 6pm so there is a need for the facility to operate at night, rather than during the day when GP clinics are open.

“Its success will also depend on sustainable funding from the federal government – but something is better than nothing.”

The Logan Medicare UCC will open at 2-10 Grand Plaza Dr, Browns Plains, from 8am to 8pm Monday to Sunday but by September it will be 8am to 10pm every day.

Originally published as Bulk billing urgent care clinic opens at Browns Plains to cut hospital waiting times