September 6th, 2024Priority care clinics mark half a million visits
The state’s Priority Primary Care Clinics are this month marking half a million visits from Victorians in need of care, with the popular clinics currently welcoming 7,000 patient visits each week through both walk-ins and appointments.
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan and Minister for Health, Mary-Anne Thomas, visited Access Community Health in Richmond to announce that the clinics will now be known as Urgent Care Clinics.
They’re hoped to make it simpler for Victorians to know how and where to get the right kind of care.
Set up by the state government, twenty-nine clinics across Victoria are aimed at reducing pressure on busy emergency departments, with survey data revealing around 50 per cent of patients would have gone to emergency if they did not have the clinic option.
Four Urgent Care Clinics are located nearby to the Macedon electorate, in Sunbury, Melton, Bendigo and Ballarat, and between them have treated 61,664 patients to date.
The clinics are reportedly popular with regional Victorians, with more than 142,000 patients seen so far at the nine clinics in country Victoria.
Highly experienced general practitioners are the backbone of primary care and lead the clinics backed by nurses.
The clinics are free, with or without a Medicare card. People can seek care for a range of reasons including sprains, broken bones, mild burns, respiratory illness, tonsillitis, ear infections and urinary tract infections.
Hospitals, paramedics, Nurse on Call, and the Victorian Virtual Emergency Department (VVED) are also using the clinics as a safe and effective referral option, with around 36 percent of patients attending via these services.
Urgent Care Clinics also receive referrals from GP clinics, medical centres and pharmacies. With many Victorians sometimes unable to secure an appointment to see a GP, Urgent Care Clinics can deliver an important alternative for these patients.
As Victorian Urgent Care Clinics become further embedded in our health system, the state is also keen to ensure they are aligned with national Medicare Urgent Care Clinics.
The Commonwealth has now taken over funding ten of Victoria’s existing clinics as part of its responsibility for delivering primary care across Australia.
Continued investment in the VVED is also helping to relieve pressure on hospitals and paramedics, with more than 360,000 virtual consultations completed since 2020. Eighty-sixpercent of these callers did not require physical care or an in-person appointment.
If faced with a medical emergency, people should still call Triple Zero or present to their closest hospital emergency department.
Member for Macedon and Minister for Health Mary-Anne Thomas: “Our Urgent Care Clinics are taking pressure off our emergency departments by offering an alternative option when local families need urgent, but not emergency care.”
Premier Jacinta Allan: “Hundreds of thousands of patients have been diverted away from our busy EDs and ambulances through these free clinics. We’re calling them Urgent Care Clinics, so Victorians know how and where to get the right kind of care.”
