Federal budget funding for Urgent Care Clinics misses opportunity to ease growing strain on hospitals with timely specialist physician care

20 May 2024

The Royal Australasian College of Physicians has said the Federal Government missed the opportunity to use this year’s budget to ease the growing strain on Australia’s hospital system by ensuring specialist physician care was made available through Urgent Care Clinics (UCCs).

RACP President Professor Jennifer Martin said that while UCCs are not the complete answer to Australia’s growing hospital admissions, there is an opportunity to use them to better meet our healthcare needs and keep a broader range of patients out of hospitals if they do not need to be there.

“This Federal Budget includes a range of positive healthcare measures including making more medicines affordable and accessible via the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and increasing the total number of Urgent Care Clinics.

“It however fails to address other key issues facing our nation’s health system.

“This budget doesn’t commit to ensuring specialist physician care is made available to patients through UCCs and team-based care models and does not do enough to tackle the increasing pressures faced by hospitals across the country.

“Urgent care is often more than just getting stitches or replacing your plaster. Complications from chronic and underlying health conditions are amongst the biggest drivers of presentations to emergency departments. If UCCs had access to specialist physicians when needed, the number of hospitalisations could in turn reduce and help address the strain many hospitals are facing.

“Urgent Care Clinics were set up to act as a bridge between GPs and hospitals for all patients, however, that is currently not the case for many patients.

“This year’s budget could have been an opportunity to address this challenge and reduce the strain on Australia’s hospital system by ensuring UCCs can facilitate specialist physician care to those who need it,” Professor Martin said.

RACP also expressed disappointment at the Federal Budget’s lack of initiatives to address significant health workforce pressures and burnout, to expand telehealth services for people living in regional and remote Australia and to adequately fund the Australian Centre for Disease Control (CDC).

“We need to do more to create a safe and well-resourced specialist physician workforce to ensure a functioning, effective and sustainable health system.”

“It was also discouraging to see that the Federal Government did not commit to expanding telehealth services for people living in regional and rural parts of the country.

“Patients from rural and remote parts of Australia often find it difficult to access specialist care due to a lack of specialist physicians nearby.

“As a result, they either end up having to travel long distances or delay accessing the care they require.

“When the full suite of specialist physician care was made available to patients living in rural and regional Australia via telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic, it was received extremely positively and helped many access vital medical care.

“Yet this year’s budget did not include any measures to make specialist physician care more accessible via telehealth for patients living in rural and remote areas.

“There were also no funding commitments made by the Government to provide support to the CDC.

“Without ongoing funding, the CDC will not be able to do the vital work of ensuring diseases do not overwhelm our country’s health system.

“The RACP strongly encourages the Federal Government to introduce measures to make specialist care available through UCCs, look at how best to support a health workforce under pressure, expand telehealth services in the regions and adequately fund the CDC in the months to come,” Professor Martin said.

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