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On a Friday afternoon in Ballarat, a staff-student netball game has gone wrong for Nicole Reynolds. A tipped ball has hit her in the face and broken her glasses.
The last place she wanted to go was the ED, and she doubted she could get a quick appointment with her GP.
She headed to the local Medicare Urgent Care Clinic, one of 75 opened across the country by the federal government since June 2023.
Seventy-five Urgent Care Clinics have been opened across the country. (ABC News: Cason Ho)
"The school said I need to get checked out. So I came here thinking that it would be a bit quicker than the emergency department on a Friday," she told 7.30.
"It seems like a really long wait, and this just seems quicker."
Ms Reynolds' experience is what Urgent Care Clinics were designed to do – relieve the pressure on emergency departments.
In Ballarat, staff believe the clinic is having an impact.
The clinics are for people who can't see a GP and need urgent care. (ABC News: Norman Hermant)
"We're seeing about 50 [patients] a day, and 1,500 patients a month, and 70 per cent of those would have otherwise presented to the emergency department," said Dr Matt Nigro from the Ballarat Medicare Urgent Care Clinic.
"[That's] significantly changing the outcomes for patients, but also taking the pressure off what is already a very, very pressured emergency department."
New model of care
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler says the clinics are working as intended. (ABC News: Lincoln Rothall)
Medicare Urgent Care Clinics were a campaign promise from Labor at the 2022 federal election. The government has committed $720 million to open and run 75 clinics, with another 12 clinics scheduled to open by the end of the year.
Many are open until 10pm during the week and are also open on weekends. They are staffed by GPs and nurses and are bulk billed.
All of this is designed to give people who can't see a GP and need urgent care an alternative to overcrowded EDs.
Many Urgent Care Clinics are open until 10pm on week nights and are also open on weekends. (ABC News: Cason Ho)
"I'm confident [this] is taking some of that pressure off," Federal Health Minister Mark Butler told 7.30.
"This is a new model of care for Australia. It's very common in other countries to which we usually compare ourselves. It's very deeply entrenched, for example, over in New Zealand, that has really significantly lower presentations to their hospital EDs."
The latest quarterly data from the three biggest states shows that overall emergency department presentations have continued to go up since the clinics opened.
But the number of less serious cases presenting to EDs have declined or plateaued.
Emergency department presentations by state
| APRIL-JUNE 2023 | APRIL-JUNE 2024 | CHANGE | |
|---|---|---|---|
| VIC | |||
| Overall | 475,218 | 503,607 | UP |
| Combined Cat 4 and 5 (least serious) | 190,167 | 185,104 | DOWN |
| NSW | |||
| Overall | 770,552 | 795,817 | UP |
| Combined Cat 4 and 5 (least serious) | 346,377 | 346,942 | UP |
| QLD | |||
| Overall | 584,431 | 592,461 | UP |
| Combined Cat 4 and 5 (least serious) | 236,006 | 233,518 | DOWN |
| Source: Victorian Agency for Health Information; NSW Bureau of Health Information; Queensland Health | |||
"I don't expect that suddenly hospital ED presentations are going to start reducing. In Australia, there are a whole range of reasons why people are going to hospital," Mr Butler said.
GPs are critical
Dr Nicole Higgins is critical of the Urgent Care Clinic model. (ABC News: Ashleigh Bagshaw)
Critics believe Medicare Urgent Care Clinics are hardly good value for the money being spent.
And the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) says the clinics are simply doubling up on what GPs already do.
"If we funded general practice to the tune of what we're doing urgent care centres, we'd be able to increase that capacity and see people on the day and continuity of care seeing a regular GP," said RACGP president Dr Nicole Higgins.
"We've already got the foundations of the healthcare system. It just needs to be funded and expanded on."
Dr Higgins told 7.30 that the per patient cost of Urgent Care Clinics was much greater than visiting a GP.
The Urgent Care Clinic in Beeliar, Perth. (ABC News: Cason Ho)
"Urgent care centres are promoted as being free, but they're not. They are so much more expensive," she said.
"If you've got a sore ear and if … you took that child to the GP, just under $43. If you took your child to the urgent care centre, it would cost the taxpayer just under $300."
Because they're bulk billed, there's a risk Medicare Urgent Care Clinics could be used by some patients as a way to avoid paying gap fees that are often charged when patients see GPs.
Dr Charles Meribole says the clinics are better equipped than GP offices to deal with urgent care. (ABC News: Cason Ho)
Dr Charles Meribole at the Beeliar Urgent Care Clinic in Perth said the clinics are not supposed to replace GPs.
"We treat some of those cases that are urgent, that can meet treatment today so that they don't get worse by tomorrow. So that's what urgent care is," Dr Meribole said.
"For life threatening emergencies we encourage them that instead of coming to urgent care, they go to hospital. So the urgent care is not an ED department, but we're equipped more than a GP practice."
'So much better'
Michelle Ruane, pictured with her daughters, has visited two Urgent Care Clinics and says they're "great". (ABC News: Cason Ho)
One of the biggest challenges Urgent Care Clinics face is awareness. Many people still haven't heard of urgent care and don't know that it's an option.
But for those who do, the reviews are positive.
With a sick daughter, Michelle Ruane came to Beeliar Urgent Care Clinic on a visit to Perth. She had already been to the Urgent Care Clinic in her hometown of Bunbury.
"Honestly, compared to ED, it is so much better because you're able to actually see someone before the four-hour mark," she said.
"It's great because then it's just something minor and you're not wasting resources for hospitals when they could be doing something a bit more urgent with other people.
"And it's easier in the sense that I don't have to wait days for a doctor's appointment."
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