LUKE GOSLING, MEMBER FOR SOLOMON: Good morning everyone, and welcome to the Palmerston Urgent Care Clinic. This Urgent Care Clinic has been a real game changer for Palmerston and the region. There’s been a lot of people presenting here that would normally have gone to the Palmerston Hospital’s emergency department, and what the Urgent Care Clinics are trying to do is provide services after-hours as well as during working hours so that people have got another option, other than going to the ED. So that’s to treat all sorts of non-life threatening issues that people might have, and all around the country they’re making a massive difference in taking the pressure off our hospitals, and this Urgent Care Clinic here in Palmerston that’s been going for nearly two years has been doing exactly that. About 28,000 presentations here, which otherwise would have been a lot more pressure on the Palmerston Regional Hospital.
Of course, we’re here for another announcement about another Urgent Care Clinic in Darwin. And to help us to make that announcement, it’s great to have my good friend, Emma McBride. She’s the Assistant Minister for Health, but focusing on Rural and Regional Health, Suicide Prevention and Mental Health. And that’s been a really important visit as well, with National Suicide Prevention Day this week, R U OK? Day this week, and earlier this week we conducted a roundtable around the very important issue of eating disorders. So, so many reasons why it’s great to have Emma in town, and I’ll hand over to her to explain the next stage in our Urgent Care Clinic rollout.
ASSISTANT MINISTER EMMA MCBRIDE: Thanks so much, Luke. It’s really good to be back here in the Northern Territory, and I want to thank Luke as the Special Envoy for his advocacy and really standing up for people from the Northern Territory in Canberra to make sure that services like Palmerston here were delivered nearly two years ago. And now, today we can announce that the tenders are now open through NT Health for their new Medicare Urgent Care Clinic in Darwin.
As Luke has said, since Palmerston's been open nearly two years ago, more than 28,000 people have been able to access urgent but not life-threatening care, taking pressure off the local hospital and meaning that local people can get support out of hours and across the week. We know that about a third of people going to Urgent Care Clinics are young people under 15, so it shows that Medicare Urgent Care are a trusted place for families as an alternative to the emergency department. And about one in four or one in five presentations are also out of normal working hours, again giving extended care to people in communities like Palmerston here, and soon in Darwin. We look forward to that new Medicare Urgent Care Clinic being open in the coming months or in the new year, and the pressure that it’ll take off Royal Darwin Hospital and the access to quality, walk-in, free care to local people.
Luke also mentioned that this week we marked R U OK? Day, World Suicide Prevention Day, and I'm pleased to announce an additional boost of $1.2 million in funding to Darwin headspace. Darwin headspace sees so many young people in the community. About a quarter of them are First Nations young people. The demand is increasing, and we wanted to make sure that Darwin headspace had the resources it needed to be able to upgrade its facility to be able to meet the needs of young people today. And also through Luke's advocacy, Darwin headspace will be one of 30 nationally that get uplifted to the new headspace Plus, recognising the complexity of issues that young people face and the demand within Darwin and the wider region. So two important announcements right here in the NT, and I want to thank Luke as Special Envoy for his advocacy.
JOURNALIST: Just a question on the tender. Is that to build the GP clinic in Darwin? And if so, like, is there a location?
MCBRIDE: So the tender processes for Urgent Care Clinics across the country go through- in this case, they're going through NT Health, and they're open to local GP practices, Aboriginal medical services or existing clinics. So the tender process to find a local provider suitable to then offer urgent care, and that tender process should close towards the end of October, and through that there will be, with the community, the location chosen that is most convenient to local people, and also to take the pressure off Royal Darwin Hospital.
JOURNALIST: So who's running the Palmerston Urgent Care Clinic, and could they potentially move to Darwin as well and run both of them?
MCBRIDE: So what we've seen in other parts of the country is that an existing service provider is of course open to put in an expression of interest through the tender process, and that decision will be made through NT Health to make sure that we get the best quality provider to be able to provide the services and support and care that local people need and deserve.
JOURNALIST: As the Assistant Minister, are you concerned at the state of Royal Darwin Hospital, and particularly the emergency department which pretty much always seems to be run off its feet?
MCBRIDE: As the Commonwealth works really closely with state and territory jurisdictions, and including here through NT Health to provide the best support that we can, I understand from Luke Gosling that there's been a 30 per cent increase in funding to Royal Darwin Hospital just this year. And we'll work through the new hospital and health agreement to make sure that Territorians and people need the care from Royal Darwin Hospital have the support that they need to be able to meet the growing needs of the community.
JOURNALIST: The call from doctors at RDH is they really, really need more beds. There's too many people who should be in aged care facilities clogging up beds at Royal Darwin Hospital. What's the Federal Government doing to make sure that aged care facilities are available here in the NT and are built so those people can move out of the hospital?
MCBRIDE: I was a chief pharmacist of a local regional hospital, and these are problems that have persisted for a long time. And what we're doing through the new Aged Care Act and through releasing of more Home Care Packages, are making sure that people in communities right across the country are able to get the support they need in home or to be able to move into aged care sooner and more safely. I acknowledge that this is a challenge that faces many hospitals in many parts of Australia, one that we're working as a Commonwealth, through both the health and hospital reform and through increasing and boosting funding to aged care to try to help address some of these challenges to make sure that people can get care sooner and it releases- removes pressure from the hospitals.
JOURNALIST: Is there any data around how much the Urgent Care Clinic here in Palmerston, maybe across Australia, is taking pressure off those emergency departments? I mean, is there a percentage that you can speak to, or something like that?
MCBRIDE: What we've seen now is since the first Urgent Care Clinics were introduced now nearly two years ago – we promised 50 and we delivered 87 in our first term, we've now committed to another 50 – that there has been a significant decrease in the number of non-urgent presentations to emergency departments. And what that means is that emergency departments can see more urgent cases sooner. So it's about matching the right care to the person in the right setting. So we have seen a reduction nationally and in local in presentations for those non-urgent cases, which means it's taking pressure off hospital emergency departments and making sure people get help sooner.
GOSLING: The operators of the Palmerston Urgent Care Clinic have done an outstanding job. It's been going for almost two years. And anecdotally, about 25 per cent of those 28,000 presentations would have otherwise gone to the ED, so it's taking pressure off the hospitals there. When it comes to our Royal Darwin Hospital and the Palmerston Hospital and the bed block we are sometimes seeing, sometimes that's because we can't get older patients into an aged care facility. And that's why the Albanese Government has provided $60 million in capital funding for a new aged care facility, 120 beds, that will probably be out here in Palmerston, and that will add to our increased Home Care Packages to really make sure that we can look after senior Territorians better than we are currently. So there's a number of ways that we're trying to take pressure off the hospitals. Thirty per cent increase to their this financial year is making a difference, and the new hospitals agreement that the Commonwealth and states and territories are negotiating will see further focus on the needs of the territory.
But I need to point out that there's funding that goes from the Commonwealth to NT Health to run that system, but there's also a lot of funding that goes from the Commonwealth into the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health System. And they do fantastic work all throughout the Territory in the communities, and that’s another way that the Commonwealth is helping Territorians be healthier and live longer and happier lives.
JOURNALIST: What’s the issue with that funding for the aged care facility, is- it’s a struggle to get anyone willing to operate it. Do you have the latest on that?
GOSLING: There’s lots of interest in running the new aged care facility for the Greater Darwin area. The former NT government ran a process, an EOI process for a new aged care facility. There was heaps of interest, but no one could make it work. That’s why the Commonwealth stepped in with $60 million of capital investment so that an operator is able to come in, hopefully a not-for-profit operator, can come in and run that aged care facility, look after Territorians, help with the bed block in that people will be able to get out of hospital and into an aged care environment where they’ll be healthier and happier. So, there is a lot of interest from operators in running both the Urgent Care Clinic and the aged care facility, and these are EOI process. We’ll see who wants to come out and run it. The operators of Palmerston have done a great job. They’re here if you wanted to ask them any questions, but there’s lots of interest in improving the health of Territorians through this Commonwealth funding in partnership with NT Health.