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An interim report into Medicare urgent care clinics (UCCs) shows that they are five times more expensive than a GP consult according to the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP).
The Department of Health and Aged Care recently released an interim report evaluating the UCC program.
But the RACGP has said it doesn’t see the value of these clinics, stating that it’s cheaper to see a GP.
“The report confirms what we already knew, urgent care clinics are an expensive model of care, which could be better and more efficiently delivered through existing general practices,” RACGP President Dr Michael Wright said.
“The Government’s election commitment to roll out more urgent care clinics will mean more than $1 billion will be spent on setting up these clinics, and the report states that each presentation costs $246.50,” he said.
“This sum is cheaper than a visit to a hospital emergency department; however, it’s significantly more expensive than a standard GP consult, which costs taxpayers a little over $42,” Dr Wright said.
“So, your average urgent care clinic visit, seeing a GP who you may not even know, is more than five times as expensive as a consult with your regular GP,” Dr Wright said.
The federal government has announced an extra 50 bulk-billing clinics by 2026 if it wins the upcoming election.
The investment, worth $644 million, will be for new clinics in every state and territory.
Despite the criticism about the UCCs, Health Minister Mark Butler stands by them, saying that they take pressure off already-crowded emergency departments.
“They were opposed by doctors’ groups, by the College of GPs and by the AMA. But I’m convinced they are the right thing to do. They’ve already seen about 1.3 million patients across the country since we started opening them about 18 months ago, every single one of them is bulk-billed,” Minister Butler said.
“And the vast bulk of them tell us that if the clinic wasn’t available, they would otherwise have gone to the hospital ED [emergency department] [where] they’ll spend hours and hours waiting in a crowded hospital emergency department,” Mr Butler told ABC Northern Tasmania.
The UCC program kicked off as a pilot in June 2023 in response to recommendations arising from the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce. The aim was to take pressure off emergency departments in the nation’s hospitals by offering alternative GP-led care for non-life-threatening conditions.
The interim report showed that the mean wait times at the UCCs were much lower than emergency departments, at 14.5 minutes, and almost double in emergency departments with a mean of 31 minutes for triage category four and 24 minutes for category five.
While waiting times for patients are shorter at UCCs, the RACGP argues for accessing urgent care through general practice.
“All specialist GPs are trained to perform urgent care, and all practices and GPs routinely provide urgent care to their patients. Accessing urgent care through general practice improves patient health outcomes because continuity of care is embedded,” Dr Wright said.
“The best, most cost-effective way to increase access to urgent care and ease pressure on hospitals is to support existing practices [to] expand their current services, including offering more after-hours services,” he said.
“If the funding dedicated to urgent care clinics instead went to practices, we could be doing much more to help patients with urgent care needs. There’s no substitute for the high quality care provided by a GP who knows you, and your history, including in urgent care situations.”
The RACGP also said that GPs had raised concerns about a lack of communication between the urgent care clinics and a patient’s usual GP.
“The report reveals that only 68% of patient presentations to urgent care clinics had an electronic discharge summary [sent] to their usual GP. This constitutes inadequate clinical handover; because without this information, a GP may not even know that their patient went to an urgent care clinic, let alone what health issue they were being treated for,” he said.
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Reliably accessible usual care is likely to be a far more important predictor of lifetime health than accessing fragmented episodes of “urgent care”. The situation is compounded by depriving usual care of resources in order to fund a model that is politically superficially attractive but in reality will prove disastrous for our nation’s wellbeing and productivity.
It might be cheaper to visit a GP for the government. But it is definitely cheaper to the patient to visit a UC clinic over a GP, and cheaper for the government over a visit to the ED. Then there is the possibility that the patient still gets sent to ED by the GP, because the GP doesn’t have the time of kit to sort something out, with the patient still paying the gap of the GP. GPs also set their prices. What’s stopping them from putting the government and public at ransom when in 2 years they say that the additional support to free-standing clinics to widen services isn’t enough? Just call it what it is, GPs don’t like competition, and will say anything to shoot it down.
From a patient-centered point of view, the argument that UC clinics are less effective than GPs doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. The need is there, and it was created by GPs in free-standing clinics when they started charging people large sums of money to spend 5 minutes with them.
Yes, it would be cheaper for everyone to see their GP for emergencies like fractures and lacerations. The problem is it’s almost impossible to get an appointment on the day. Often there are no appointments until several days later, with ANY of the GPs at the practice. More money to expand existing practices may or may not be welcomed by GP practices and GPs on particular. I’m not a GP but have accessed an Urgent Care clinic myself when I fractured my foot. I couldn’t get in to see my GP or any doctor at the practice, so was advised to go to the UCC. Otherwise I would have had to go to ED. Another thing: although you can apparently just walk in to these UCCs, they do have an option to book online which really defeats the purpose I think.
A sporting competition I’m part of promotes visits to local UCCs for minor injuries on Saturday playing days. GP clinics aren’t open, and no-one wants to sit around in an emergency department when you can be seen and treated much quicker at the UCC. This has worked well for the community and diverts people away from hospitals when they are already busy.
Western Sydney EDs start the day with 50+ admitted patients with no bed available on a ward.
These patients can’t go home and need admission, so the argument that UCCs are going to relieve the pressure on EDs was always a lie, these patients simply are not GP/UCC patients!
If only they took that money and funded Medicare rebates for GPs and to open more ward beds in hospitals.
Almost as our politicians will do everything but listen to the actual front line experts.
It is appalling to see MOH not listening to GPs and RACGP.One person from NZ,who reckons he is an expert in UC and wrote a thesis than pushed by some cooperate practices for UC as they knew they will get millions in funding with no concern on continuity of care
UC clinic is based on NZ system which is completely different.UC in NZ is private billing and ACC supported like Work cover scheme which is a rip off anyway in NZ.
Every doctor in GP practice can manage such a patient who go to UC.Because GP practices are not funded as in NZ ,it is medicare based so most clinics cant have open bookings and can not provide service beyond hours. If money given to UC is given to GP practices they can open after hrs and weekends thus saving millions.
It is the patients from GP practices who seek service from UC at a cost of $264 per visits. THIS AUTOCRATIC GOVT IS RUINING GP. What happened to Super clinics will happen to urgent care after govt change.Thus leading to billions of dollars being wasted for nothing.
Interesting costings. And my experience is that UCCs also don’t perform the role they should. They will often refer onto EDs if the patient needs a minor procedure (e.g. suturing), is a child etc. The care is not between that of a GP and an ED. Often its below that of an experienced GP. Perhaps their employment of only GPs needs to change. The GPs are better employed in a general practice. UCCs would perform better with nurse practitioners and/or Emergency doctors.
The point is though, that urgent care centres are free to the user. That’s what people want. And that’s what I, as a GP, will not commit to. It wouldn’t matter what kind of incentive the federal government gave me, I wouldn’t commit to it. With its little treats like bulk-billing incentive, the government is attempting to be a powerful partner in an abusive relationship with GPs. “Come back to me, I love you, I won’t hit you again.” But I’m wiser now.
The interim report on Medicare Urgent Care Clinics confirms what medical groups have been warning: these clinics are an inefficient use of public funds, costing over five times more than a standard GP visit, without delivering better care. The ALP’s rollout appears more like an election strategy than genuine health reform, with over $1 billion funneled into setup costs rather than frontline services. These clinics duplicate existing GP services, disrupt continuity of care, and lack proper communication with patients’ regular doctors.
Rather than funding expensive alternatives, government investment should go toward supporting existing general practices, extending after-hours care, and educating the public on appropriate use of emergency departments versus GP services.
Our healthcare system needs strategic, evidence-based reforms—not short-term political fixes.