New bulk-billed urgent care clinic opens in Alice Springs

A new Medicare urgent care clinic open seven days a week will offer walk-ins and bulk-billing for Alice Springs residents.

Alice Springs residents will have better access to health care with the opening of a new Medicare Urgent Care Clinic offering walk-in care and bulk-billing from Monday.

Operated by the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress, the clinic will be located at the Northside Shopping Complex and open seven days a week.

The current opening hours for the clinic are 12pm to 8pm on weekdays and 12pm to 4pm on weekends and public holidays.

Health Minister Mark Butler said the new clinic would make it easier for residents to access health care.

“The Alice Springs Medicare UCC will make a big difference to local patients who will be able to walk in during extended hours and receive convenient, high-quality care from a nurse or a doctor,” he said.

“The clinic will ensure families in the Northern Territory who need urgent but not acute care, can get it quickly even if it’s outside standard hours – and all they’ll need is their Medicare card.”

A new Medicare urgent care clinic in Alice Springs will be open 7 days a week to provide accessible health care for residents and ease pressure on local emergency departments. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Assistant Indigenous Australians and Indigenous Health Minister Malarndirri McCarthy said it would make health care “accessible and affordable” for patients in the region.

Almost half of presentations to the Alice Springs emergency department in 2021–22 were for non-urgent or semi-urgent care.

Member for Lingiari Marion Scrymgour said the new urgent care clinic would ease pressure on local emergency departments.

“I’ve heard from people across Alice Springs how difficult it can be to access medical care when they have a pressing health concern, but they can’t get in to see a GP,” she said.

“Most people in this situation end up in the emergency department, or, worse, they simply go without care,

“The Alice Springs Medicare UCC will ease pressure on our local emergency departments and be much more convenient for our community.”

The new Alice Springs clinic is part of the federal government’s rollout of 58 clinics across the country.

Initially announced to open on 1 November, the Alice Springs clinic’s opening date was pushed back to address workforce issues which have since been resolved.

It joins a similar operation in Palmerston that opened on October 5.