GRAEME GOODINGS, HOST: The Federal Government's introduced Urgent Care Clinics to take some of the pressure off EDs. It's pretty early days yet, but I thought we'd like to find out how they're going. Joining me now is Health Minister, Mark Butler. Minister, good morning. Thanks for being with us.
MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE, MARK BUTLER: Morning, Graeme.
GOODINGS: Have the clinics worked to the level that you expected?
BUTLER: Probably even better than we had expected and hoped, Graeme. We have a real gap in our system here in Australia, which you don't see in countries that we usually compare ourselves to, like New Zealand, North America, some of the European countries. Really what we have here is a pretty standard general practice offering, and then you have very sophisticated hospital emergency departments, but you don't have anything in between, which is what we're trying to build with Urgent Care Clinics. What they're catered for is really those urgent but non-life-threatening emergencies where you might not be able to find a GP to get into within an hour or two, particularly if it's the weekend or after hours, but you don't necessarily need a fully equipped hospital. So, think about your grandkid falling off the skateboard and busting their wrist, or getting something caught in their eye or laceration.
These clinics are open seven days a week, extended hours. Importantly, they’re fully bulk billed, you just need a Medicare card. They're staffed with people with really good emergency management skills. It's very early days, but we've seen almost 100,000 services across the country with the more than 50 clinics we've opened. They are delivering high quality care when people need it, where they need it, in their own community and there is evidence that it's taking real pressure off our hospital emergency departments.
GOODINGS: We had a caller yesterday who would have benefited by an Urgent Care Clinic. He had a nasty cut that that really needed to be stitched and treated. He went to an emergency department, was there for 13 hours because obviously it was a low priority, but it was significant to him. He would have certainly been better off at an Urgent Care Clinic.
BUTLER: Absolutely, we've got three of them open in Adelaide now, the fourth will open in a couple of weeks. We've opened one in Royal Park, so in the West last week. Elizabeth has been open now for a little while, for some weeks now. Marion has been open as well, and we opened one in Mount Gambier. They are all part of the network of 58 that will be opened before the end of this year. The feedback I'm getting from the clinics themselves, but more importantly from patients, is that this is a real godsend for them, particularly when their kid gets injured or gets hurt.
Already, of the almost 100,000 services across the country, about a third of them are for people under the age of 15. So, as I said, falling off a skateboard or something like that, and as you say, because it's not a heart attack or a stroke or a very serious motor vehicle accident, when you go to a hospital emergency department with something like that - a deep cut or something in your eye - you are understandably shuffled to the back of the queue as the very serious, life threatening emergencies come through the front door. What we're finding with these urgent care clinics is not only are people getting very high-quality care completely free of charge, they're in and they're out pretty quickly, they're being seen very, very quickly instead of waiting, as you say, maybe 13 hours in a crowded emergency department. That's bad for anyone, but particularly for parents with kids, it's a very difficult environment to sit in for 8, 10 or 12 hours.
GOODINGS: If I could say that one criticism - and I think it's a great idea - and this was expressed by people yesterday, they didn't even, they weren't even aware that the Urgent Care Clinics exist. Is there enough publicity? Is there enough information out there so people know where they are and how many there are?
BUTLER: They’ve only really been opening in the last couple of months. As I said, the one in the west of Adelaide only opened last week, and Elizabeth and Marion have been open a little bit longer. Morphett Vale will be open in the last week of December. We do have an information campaign ready but we didn't want to put it out obviously until the clinic was open, up and running, so we didn't send the wrong message to patients. That will be going out over the next several weeks. It will be very locally targeted so you know where your clinic is, you know what its opening hours are and all the rest of the details that people would want to know.
Also when people have an urgent need for medical care because their kid is sick or they've fallen off the ladder themselves or something, usually what people will do is ring the Healthdirect number, which is the national call emergency number. What people would have experienced for a considerable period of time, Graeme, is the nurses on the call would say “try and find a GP in your area, if you can't find a GP in your area within a couple of hours, think about going to the hospital emergency department.” As your listeners would know, it's really hard to find a GP right now, particularly hard after hours or on the weekends. So those people were so often at the emergency department because there was no other alternative. What those phones lines will now be saying to you is: they'll check on the type of emergency you've got, they'll check on the region you're calling from, so, if for example, you're in the western suburbs of Adelaide and you've got something that's clearly not life threatening, it doesn't mean you have to go to a hospital, but is something that needs to be seen urgently, you will be directed to the Urgent Care Clinic. You'll be told it's at Royal Park, it's on Old Port Road, it operates at these hours, get down there, you can just walk in, you don't have to make an appointment.
GOODINGS: One thing that came out of the discussions about this yesterday, putting extra pressure on the emergency departments, is somebody went along for treatment to their GP and it was something like they'd had a splinter and it had healed incorrectly, and they had a lump in their finger, and, I believe, it was painful and needed some sort of treatment. Obviously not something that you'd need to go to an emergency department before for. But this person said, you know, normally a GP would actually tend to it and, you know, perform a minor surgery. They said they don't do that anymore. Are you aware that there's sort of been a change in GP's procedures?
BUTLER: I think when we were young, GPs would often do a lot more of those of settings - fractures and all those sorts of things, they weren't as overwhelmed with patient demand and a big waiting room out the front that was filled with patients. There is a bit of a difference between different GPs, and some do those procedures still and some won’t necessarily do them. I don't want to give a blanket statement about that, there is a variety of approaches out there in general practice land. General practitioners are doing an extraordinary job, though, but their job has just become harder and harder and harder over the years as we get more complex chronic disease, we’re getting a bit older as a community, there's more mental health issues, and they really are the front line for that. They do a terrific job, it really is one of the hardest jobs in medicine being a GP, one of the most rewarding too I know. But it is a very tough job. So that's why we want to add just another option for patients if they have something like what you just described that really needs to be seen very urgently. These are highly qualified doctors and nurses who usually have experience in emergency medicine, so they are able to do those sorts of things, they’re able to do them quickly, you don't need to make an appointment, you just walk into the clinic, they again are completely free of charge, fully bulk billed. All you need is a Medicare card.
GOODINGS: Thank you for that, Minister. If people want the exact - I mean, it's Elizabeth, Marion, Royal Park, Mount Gambier, the fifth one to be opened at Morphett Vale, where do people get the exact locations?
BUTLER: They can get them on health.gov.au. There will also be lots of material going out in those communities to give people all the details.
GOODINGS: Minister, thanks for your time today.
BUTLER: Thanks, Graeme.
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