Doorstop interview with Minister White, Bridgewater – 20 October 2025

REBECCA WHITE, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE: Labor's commitment to expand our Medicare Urgent Care Clinic network has been a real success. Here in Tasmania, we have 5 Medicare urgent care clinics, and from last week, the data shows us that more people were seen at a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic than at the Royal Hobart hospital emergency department. More than 1500 Tasmanians took advantage of using a service at a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic last week compared to the people who went to an emergency department at the Hobart hospital. We had double the number of people presenting to Medicare Urgent Care Clinics than presented to the Launceston General Hospital Emergency Department. We know these services are taking pressure off our major hospitals, but more importantly, Medicare Urgent Care Clinics are providing health care close to where people live, at a time that they need it. These services are open 7 days a week, and about a quarter of all presentations to our Medicare urgent care clinics happen on a weekend, and about a quarter of all presentations are for children under the age of 15. And that's a real benefit to parents who are looking to access health care for their children, particularly after hours, particularly on a weekend, and they don't want to have to go to an emergency department, because it's not an emergency situation, but they need urgent health care. Medicare urgent care clinics have really filled a gap between seeing a GP and needing to go to an emergency department. And the fact that 1500 Tasmanians presented our Medicare urgent care clinics last week just shows how well used they are and how well needed they are. I'm really excited that we're expanding it by 3 to cover Burnie, Sorrell and the Kingborough region. And across the country, we've seen more than 2 million people use a Medicare Urgent Care Clinics now, so they're definitely working, helping people access free health care close to where they live, and making sure that we're taking pressure off our busy emergency departments. I'll hand across to Mark, who's the practice owner and manager here, can talk about the sort of presentation they're seeing and how this is helping families in this community. 
 
DR MARK BALDOCK:  Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak on behalf of the hard working doctors and nurses and support staff here at Jordan River Health, and it's is a great honour and privilege to be able to make a difference to the community in the greater northern suburbs, for what is really an enormous need that has been shown over the last year that we've been open here at Jordan River Health. In our Medicare Urgent Care Clinic we are seeing patients across the age groups, across the healthcare needs. And it really does beg the question, what was happening before this? And the answer is that most patients were going to the emergency department 26 km away. The difference that the urgent care has made is significant and will be measured in terms of better quality of life. Urgent care is here to stay, and I think it's just an honour and a privilege to be able to be involved in in making such a significant difference in one's lifetime. Thank you. 
 
JOURNALIST:  In the almost year you’ve been open how many people have presented here?  
 
BALDOCK: We see around 40 people a day, our exact numbers sit around more than 6,500. 
 
JOURNALIST: In terms of presentation, you said you're seeing patients across the board. Is there a particular reason they're coming in? What are you seeing the most of?  
 
BALDOCK:  Our brief is to see what we can treat on the day. This is not an emergency and it's not a chronic disease general practice. We see minor trauma and minor illnesses that we can treat on the day, respiratory, gastrointestinal, skin infections across the board. The objective of Urgent Care Clinics is to treat what we can there and then, and keep people out of hospital if we can, but not take away from general practice. Medicare Urgent Care Clinics are not here to replace the much-needed chronic disease management and disease prevention of general practice. It's here to treat acute events and acute illness. 
 
JOURNALIST:  And you mentioned you see that 40 patients a day. What's the average wait time for these patients? 
 
BALDOCK:  Good question and it depends on the time of day. You get here at 9 o'clock, there's 20 people waiting if you get here after 5 o'clock, there might be four or five. So the average wait time is probably between 15 minutes to an hour and a half, depending on what has come before you, because we do triage the patients, and we get everything here from a myocardial infarction to a cough or a cold that needs an antibiotic. It's really difficult to know what message to send with that question, because I don't want to say you're going to be waiting 2 hours, because you may not be.
 
JOURNALIST:  
I understand in the north, I think some of them have been waiting quite extensive hours, so it's kind of deterring them from actually going to urgent care. 
 
BALDOCK: 
Was it worth waiting for? That's what you ask yourself. Not how long you wait. Is it worth waiting for? What are you waiting for? You're waiting for treatment that will stop you being sick for weeks, treatment that will stop you going into hospital, treatment that's going to stop you having an illness that's going to go on for months and months. Is that worth waiting for? 
 
JOURNALIST:  I suppose if you're waiting in an emergency department for maybe 2 hours, it's not, I guess, a whole lot more than an urgent care clinic. If it's an hour and a half. 
 
BALDOCK:  People that wait for long times in emergency departments probably shouldn't be in emergency departments. 
 
JOURNALIST:  In terms of even patients just saving money with the free clinic, do you have a rough idea of how much they have saved since Medicare Urgent Care Clinics started? 
 
WHITE: When you present to an emergency department, there's no cost if you need emergency care, just like presenting here to an urgent care clinic, there's no cost because it's fully bulk billed under Medicare, over the course of all the 2 million patients who've accessed health treatments across the network in the country. I mean, there'd be a massive saving when you think about what that might have looked like if they've had to wait to see a GP, or the cost for the health system, more generally, proceeding to an emergency department is far more expensive for a patient to be treated in the emergency department than for a patient to be treated in a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic. So I think the better question is, what is the cost saving for the patient in terms of the amount of time they've had to wait to be seen, but also to the Budget, because people are getting treated in a place that's better for the type of illness that they're presenting for, rather than waiting in a busy emergency department.  
 
JOURNALIST: We've got 5 clinics in Tassie. Are there any plans for the federal government to open up another one? 
 
WHITE:  We have 5 clinics here in Tassie. We will be opening 3 more. There'll be 1 in Burnie, 1 in Sorrell, and 1 in Kingborough and all 3 of those will be open by next year, which is very exciting for the communities who've worked really hard to campaign for that. And I'm really proud to deliver that under a Labor Government.  
 
 
JOURNALIST:  I understand federal Liberal and state Liberal are calling on the Labor Government to see if they will pitch in to help the Hobart Clinic, beyond that $2 million for the next 6 months. Is that something federal Labor would consider? 
 
WHITE:  
I just want to start by saying I really empathise with the concerns that have been raised around the closure of the Hobart Clinic, whether it's for patients and their families or the staff, is an incredibly uncertain time. I understand the board of the Hobart Clinic is meeting this week, and they will decide how they respond to the offer from the state government of the $2 million. I have spoken to the state Health Minister, and she's expressed to me that that $2 million coming from the Department of State Growth is flexible and how the Hobart Clinic can choose to use it for a feasibility study, then they are able to negotiate those arrangements with the state government. The federal government hasn't received any representations from the Hobart Clinic. We haven't received any plan from them about what they would like us to assist with to make sure we can keep that clinic open. I'm watching to see what the outcomes from the board meeting this week are and remain available to support Tasmanians and make sure they have access to the best mental health care that they possibly can. It's why we've stood up Medicare Mental Health Clinics, which again, are free services for people to walk in without an appointment to access a health professional providing mental health support here in Tasmania. We have already opened some in Tasmania, and we'll be opening more because we realise that access to mental health care is a real challenge for a lot of people in our state, and that's where Medicare can play a role, providing access just like we do through Medicare Urgent Care clinics and Medicare Mental Health Clinics will make a difference for people who need treatment.  
 
JOURNALIST:  
If the clinic does reach out to the federal government, would they chip in? Is it that possibility, and how much? 
 
WHITE:  We haven't been asked to do anything by the Hobart Clinic. We understand they're having a board meeting this week. I think the question for the board, and for those who are interested in taking on operations at the Hobart Clinic, is how they plan to do that in a way that's sustainable, how they support patients. And in fact, I think we're all keen to understand what support does look like, because those buildings probably need some capital improvements. The operation of that site probably needs a different business model, and that is something the board needs to consider, and we're working with the state government to understand what that looks like.