Following the discovery that Labor’s self-imposed deadline to establish urgent care centers will not be met, the Coalition accused Labor of making a “disastrous broken promise.”
Despite Finance Minister Katy Gallagher’s claim that the federal Department of Health hoped to have some of Labor’s promised 50 clinics operating by May of this year, the department has now acknowledged that some may not be built until late 2024.
More information will be made available “in the coming months,” according to the administration, who says talks with the states about their commitment to hold federal elections are still ongoing.
In an effort to relieve pressure on a hospital system already decimated by the COVID-19 pandemic, Labor promised that each state and territory would host the clinics, which would treat significant but non-life threatening ailments.
The clinics were deemed a “genuine priority” by Senator Gallagher the day before the May 2022 federal election, and he stated that Labor’s goal was to have them “up and running” within a year of its gaining office.
Later, when speaking in August, Health Minister Mark Butler expanded the commitment to 2023 more broadly, stating: “They’ll be up and operating next year.”
The health department acknowledged that certain clinics might not operate until the second half of 2024 in response to questions from this week, more than halfway toward Senator Gallagher’s goal.
According to the statement, “Clinics will open gradually beginning in the first half of 2023, with the majority being established in the 2023–24 fiscal year.”
The revelation, according to Coalition spokesperson for health Anne Ruston, showed Labor regards its commitment to urgent care centers as “not that urgent.”
Senator Ruston claimed that despite not being able to specify where the clinics will be placed, Labor had consistently reaffirmed its commitment to building them.
She stated, “This is a terrible broken promise to the Australian people as well as to the hard-working hospital personnel who believed that these urgent care clinics would provide them with some relief and give health services to the larger community.”
“The Labor government is still demonstrating their willingness to make bold pledges in order to win an election. The prime minister needs to get up and give an explanation for breaking yet another promise.”
The department also declined to say how many clinics have been established following the transfer of power.
Victoria and NSW said in August that they intended to open 25 urgent care facilities apiece, which might complicate the strategy. Whether these will be incorporated into the federal government’s plan is still up in the air.
“Before the urgent care clinics are built, discussions between state and territory governments are under progress. In the upcoming months, further details about the clinics will be available “a representative for Mr. Butler stated.
According to Labor, a growing number of people are showing up at hospitals with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, such as burns, broken bones, and wounds requiring stitches.
According to the $135 million plan, those patients would be transferred from emergency rooms to neighboring urgent care facilities, which would have GPs on site from 8am to 10pm.
Each state and territory would have a center, and service could be invoiced in bulk.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said when announcing the idea last May that reducing wait times would free up emergency physicians’ time to concentrate on saving lives.
More families will be able to receive excellent care from a nurse or a doctor without having to wait in a hospital emergency department because to Labor’s Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, he claimed.
Labor’s strategy to strengthen Medicare by making it simpler to see a doctor includes these clinics as a significant component.
