EVAN WALLACE, PRESENTER: Picture this, it’s a Saturday morning and something isn’t feeling right. You’re feeling relatively okay, but you’re a bit concerned about a nasty cough that sounds a bit funny. You’ve picked up some neck pain from the morning’s netball game. Or maybe you’ve just managed to pick up a rather painful burn from the kettle. What do you do when something like this happens? Well over the last few years, here in Launceston happens, normally when something like this comes up it’s a cue for me to go to the Medicare Urgent Care clinic. But, I’ve had to wait to 2pm to see someone and, by the time I’m there, there’s already a lot of people waiting for assistance. As of yesterday, well you don’t have to wait until the afternoon for help, with the Launceston Medicare Urgent Care Clinic now open from 9am to 9pm daily. What sort of difference will it make for you? Well, it’s not just Launceston that's home to a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic in the north of our state. There's also one in Devonport and one that was promised by the Labor Party at the federal election for Burnie. Rebecca White is the Assistant Health Minister and she's also the member for Lions. Rebecca White, hello.
REBECCA WHITE, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE: Hi Evan, thanks for having me on.
WALLACE: Now the extended clinic hours, it's great news for Lonnie locals but if you're in Devonport you still have to wait until 2 during the week until doors open. Any plans at all to expand opening hours there?
WHITE: Well we have made a big commitment to strengthening Medicare and I'm thrilled that from yesterday anyone in Northern Tassie can access their Medicare Urgent Care Clinic there in Launceston on Wellington Street much earlier in the day from nine o'clock and it's exciting to hear Dr Jerome Muir Wilson there talk about the numbers they're seeing because that means fewer people going to the emergency department. You're right, in Devonport it's open from 2pm to 9pm Monday to Friday and 1pm to 9pm Saturday and Sunday. We are in discussions to make sure those hours are aligning to meet local demand and also looking at what kind of presentations we're seeing at the emergency department because we want to make sure it's aligning to peak presentations and the ED for those CAT 4 and 5 presentations. So those are the urgent cases, not emergency cases. And if we need to make some changes there, then of course, we're open to looking at how we might do that.
WALLACE: So discussions underway about potential expansion. No, firm plans at this stage, but it's something that might be on the radar, Rebecca White.
WHITE: We are working closely with states and territories across the country, making sure that with our primary health networks, we are getting a really clear picture of how patients are using our Urgent Care Clinic, but also what we're seeing in our emergency departments. Because as you just heard from Dr Muir Wilson, about 50% of patients who present to an urgent care clinic would have otherwise gone to an ED. We know they're really busy and under pressure. If we can reduce the sort of presentations we're seeing at our hospitals, that's great for those staff and great for patients. So, we are always looking at that, because we want people to be able to get access to local health care in a timely way and that's what our investment in strengthening Medicare is all about.
WALLACE: Now during the election campaign, your party promised to open a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic in Burnie this this financial year. So, you've got 12 months to deliver on it. When will Burnie residents be able to attend their own Medicare Urgent Care Clinic, Rebecca White?
WHITE: Yeah, that's exactly right. And this is the case for the 50 we promised across the country. We expect to have them all ready and able to take patients by the 1st of July next year. Hopefully some of them will come online sooner than that, and that's certainly our ambition. Within the next 12 months, people within Burnie should be able to go and see their local GP for free at a Medicare urgent care clinic.
WALLACE: You've also promised two clinics in the south of the state, new ones, that is. I'm a bit mystified at exactly how we're finding enough health professionals to staff these clinics. So workers at these clinics, they must be earning megabucks to attract them there.
WHITE: Well, as you heard from Dr Muir Wilson, the work is interesting and that's been one of the reasons that people have been excited to work in them. He has talked about the fact that he's grown his workforce and that's great because we also need to make sure that we've got consistent care for patients who are presenting to these services. We are significantly investing in Medicare, including the workforce. Through our over $8 billion investment in Medicare, there is $800 million specifically to train more GPs and nurses because we know we need to build the workforce to meet the demand. And I'm very confident that we've got the strategies in place to do that. And you can see from the operations of our Urgent Care Clinics across Tasmania to date, they are working incredibly well and we've been able to provide great care to patients.
WALLACE: Well, the Royal Australian College of GPs, they say that they're concerned that each presentation at an Urgent Care Clinic is costing $246 compared to the current $44 rebate for a standard GP consultation. Rebecca White, what guarantee can you give that the expansion of Urgent Care Clinics won't make it more challenging to see a GP?
WHITE: Well, as I said, we're talking about investing in the entire network, including our general practitioners who are working outside of Urgent Care Clinics by boosting Medicare, providing more than an $8 billion injection to make sure that more people can be bulk billed, which includes training more doctors and nurses. We are serious about investing in health, making it easier for people to see a bulk billing GP, not just one at an Urgent Care Clinic, but one at their local practice too and supporting doctors so they can do that important work.
WALLACE: But you're not worried that you're spreading the butter a little bit too thinly there, that in one case if we're scaling up with these Urgent Care Clinics, that it might mean that there's not enough doctors available at your local GP?
WHITE: Well we're training more doctors here in Tassie even, there was an announcement through the election campaign that, through the UTAS campus in Launceston, we're going to provide more options for doctors to train in Tasmania. This is something we are seriously focused on because you can't deliver any of these services if you don't have people. And I think everyone acknowledges that. I am pleased to see how successful they've been. I'm pleased, if you look at the network as a whole, and you understand the cost of the health system as a whole, you'll see there's pressure coming off the emergency department, and a presentation there is far more expensive than a presentation to an Urgent Care Clinic. And if you're thinking about how we deliver health holistically, regardless of whether it's a federal or state government responsibility, but just thinking about patients being at the centre, that's a smart investment.
WALLACE: Okay, more doctors, more nurses, more health professionals. I think that's all very important in terms of giving people the care that they need and I think everyone would probably agree with that.