An interim report on urgent care clinics across Australia has been released and some GPs say it confirms their concerns, including that they are an expensive method of trying to ease pressure on the health system.
RACGP Vice President and WA Chair Ramya Raman has previously raised concerns with Medical Forum that urgent care clinics were an expensive model of care with no clear evaluation on their impact.
Despite concerns raised by GPs since the introduction of these clinics, Federal Labor has promised another six new urgent care clinics will be opened in WA if re-elected.
While a final report on the program is not expected until 2026, international management consultancy Nous Group released a report containing an interim evaluation of the first six months of the program’s operation.
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The evaluation is based on measures of success that were developed and agreed by the Commonwealth, State and Territory governments.
It found each presentation at a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic cost around $246.50.
RACGP President Dr Michael Wright said the interim report validated many of the College’s concerns regarding urgent care clinics and left unanswered questions.
He said it showed the clinics were five times more expensive than a standard GP consult, and their value in addressing Australia’s patient care challenges “remains unclear”.
“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 all specialist GPs are trained to perform urgent care, and all practices and GPs routinely provide urgent care to their patients.
“The best, most cost-effective way to increase access to urgent care and ease pressure on hospitals is to support existing practices expand their current services, including offering more after-hours services.
“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.”
Dr Wright warned urgent care clinics could also fragment patient care.
“The report reveals that only 68% of patient presentations to urgent care clinics had an electronic discharge summary to their usual GP,” Dr Wright said.
“If the transfer of care isn’t done properly and in a timely way, there is a risk of fragmenting care, which results in poorer patient health outcomes, including preventable hospitalisations.”
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However, the interim report was clear that it was too early to know the full impact of urgent care clinics.
“At this early stage, the evaluation cannot draw conclusions about the concerns expressed from some GPs that Medicare UCCs will interfere with established relationships between GPs and their patients,” it stated.
Despite concerns raised by the RACGP, Health Minister Mark Butler has said “doctors have embraced the clinics”, quoting a Healthed survey of almost 800 doctors that found seven in 10 GPs support them, and eight in 10 GPs say they have a positive impact on hospital emergency departments.
As well as looking at the impact on coordination of care within the health system and cost effectiveness, the interim report evaluated a number of other measures of success including consumer behaviour and safe and quality treatment.
While it found it was “too early to provide a balanced assessment of how satisfied patients are with Medicare UCCs” it estimated that around 334,000 ED presentations would be avoided annually if Medicare UCCs were operating at their stabilised activity levels post-opening.
It also found the national median waiting time at Medicare UCCs was “notably lower” than the waiting time for urgent GP care and lower than ED waiting times for national public hospital ED triage category four and five presentations.
A second interim evaluation report is due out in late 2025.
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