Fifty new after-hours GP clinics will be constructed across Victoria and NSW to ease pressure on emergency departments, but no sites across the Goulburn Valley have yet been slated for a clinic following Tuesday’s announcement.
The Victorian Government last week promised five new centres, one in Ballarat and four in metropolitan Melbourne, and has added another 10 across the state in Bendigo, Albury-Wodonga, Latrobe and seven sites across the state capital.
Ten more sites will be announced in coming weeks.
NSW has yet to identify any sites for the GP clinics but will add 25 of its own for a total of 50 new state-funded, bulk-billed GP locations across both states.
In May, the Federal Labor Party promised another 50 new after-hours GP clinics, including one in Shepparton, should it win government in Canberra, which it did.
There has been no further word about the 50 proposed clinics since Labor took power, but a spokesperson for Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said the federal clinics would be operational by mid-2023.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said on Tuesday in a joint press conference with NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet that federal clinics were still planned.
Mr Andrews said the Federal Government’s urgent-care clinics were “on the way”, but would “need some time” to be operational.
“We know and appreciate that the Commonwealth are investigating longer-term support for primary care, but we also know we need to act now to support healthcare systems across Australia’s two biggest states,” he said.
Both federal- and state-promised GP clinics would be open after-hours and be designed to relieve pressure on stressed emergency departments.
They would be run in conjunction with primary health networks.
There was no word on how staffing either state-run or federal-run centres would work, with a nationwide shortage of GPs and nurses.
Mr Andrews said the state-based clinics would be bulk-billed.
“These clinics will allow for hundred of patients to be treated each and every day, 16 hours a day, seven days a week and be bulk-billed for everyone,” he said.
He said the clinics would aim to be open in the “next couple of months”, and 10 more sites would be announced where they were needed most once more data was collected.
“Trying to find an after-hours GP which is bulk-billed has never been harder,” Mr Andrews said.
Mr Butler said it was “no surprise” states were announcing plans for additional clinics following “nine long years of cuts and neglect”.
“The 50 urgent care clinics will make it easier for Australians to see a doctor or nurse when they need it and take pressure off hospitals,” he said.