New bulk-billed urgent care clinics to open in Palmerston, Alice Springs

Two new clinics are opening in the Territory offering urgent healthcare to those who cannot wait to see a GP. Here’s what issues and illnesses it’s for.

The new Palmerston Medicare Urgent Care Clinic opened on Thursday. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

A new clinic designed to ease pressure on emergency departments and offer bulk-billed urgent healthcare has opened in Palmerston.

The same is also set to launch in Alice Springs next month as part of the federal government’s rollout of 58 clinics across the country.

But the federal opposition has described the delivery of clinics as a “broken promise”.

Welcoming its first patients on Thursday, the Palmerston Medicare Urgent Care Clinic accepts people whose conditions are not life-threatening but need quick attention.

PMUCC chief executive Robyn Cahill said the clinic is completely bulk-billed for eligible patients.

The new Palmerston Medicare Urgent Care Clinic opened on Thursday. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

“It’s designed to provide people who are suffering some kind of urgent issue like … a terrible cold or a temperature, or ‘I fell off the porch and I think I’ve broken something’,” she said on ABC Radio.

“(EDs) and hospitals really are places where you might need to be admitted, or it’s something that’s so serious that it actually requires immediate intervention at a much higher acute level.”

Ms Cahill said the clinic would be staffed by at least one doctor, one nurse and one administration officer at all times although more medical staff were being sought.

In the meantime it is expected to ease pressure on the Top End hospitals, which have gone through seven code yellows in six months.

PMUCC cheif executive Robyn Cahill. Picture: Glenn Campbell

“The problem is that we just don’t have enough general practitioners to go around,” Ms Cahill said.

“Some practices, I understand have two to three-week waiting periods and if you’ve cut your hand you can’t wait two or three weeks.

“So those people have been gravitating towards the emergency department in hospitals across the country, because they simply can’t get in to see their GP.”

Luke Gosling OAM, Federal Member for Solomon.

Ms Cahill said the federal funding - which is part of a $493.5m to establish 58 UCCs in Australia - meant there would be no out-of-pocket costs to patients of the new clinic.

Solomon MP Luke Gosling said the Palmerston clinic would help Territorians get “care quickly, closer to home, and at no cost to them”.

“I know many families who have had to wait long hours at the Royal Darwin Hospital emergency department for non-life-threatening issues,” he said.

“The Palmerston Medicare Urgent Care Clinic will ease the pressure on our local emergency departments and provide greater convenience for our community.”

Opposition health spokeswoman Senator Anne Ruston said the government was not delivering on what it agreed to and had already backflipped on the hours of operation that were promised.

“We are seeing the impact of this broken promise on the Northern Territory, where the Palmerston Urgent Care Clinic will not be open for the extended hours required to adequately relieve pressure on the hospital system,” she said.

“The clinic will be open for a mere six hours a day during the week — this is far from providing the promised improved access to critical healthcare and reduced pressure on hospital emergency departments.”

The new PMUCC is located at the rear of the Palmerston GP Super Clinic on 3 Gurd Street.

The Alice Springs urgent care clinic, which is set to open on November 1, will be located at Central Australian Aboriginal Congress Northside Clinic on Hearne Place.