New urgent care clinic pledged for Terrigal

With the date for this year’s Federal election expected to be announced any day now, Labor has announced a new Medicare Urgent Care Clinic (UCC) for Terrigal.

To be located in the Terrigal catchment, the region’s third clinic will be funded through the government’s $644M commitment to open another 50 Urgent Care Clinics nationwide.

It will join existing clinics at Lake Haven and Umina Beach.

Once all clinics are open, four in five Australians will live within a 20-minute drive of a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic.

If Labor is re-elected, the new Medicare Urgent Care Clinic will begin operating in the 2025-26 financial year, providing bulk billed care for urgent but non-life-threatening conditions, seven days a week, for extended hours, and with no appointment needed.

The UCC will help take pressure off Gosford Hospital, which saw 35,102 non-urgent and semi-urgent presentations in 2023-24.

One third of patients seen were under the age of 15.

Labor says Liberal leader Peter Dutton has labelled the clinics as “wasteful spending” and a Coalition victory could see them closed, forcing over a million Australians a year back into the waiting rooms of busy hospital emergency departments.

Health Minister Mark Butler was on the Coast this week to make the announcement alongside Member for Robertson Dr Gordon Reid and Member for Dobell Emma McBride.

“The Liberals had nine years to open Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, and they never opened a single one,” Butler said.

“Medicare Urgent Care Clinics are an Albanese Government initiative because we believe in Medicare and in free urgent care, fully bulk billed.”

Reid said interested GPs in the Terrigal catchment would be able to apply to host the new UCC.

“At this election Australia faces a choice: a stronger Medicare with more bulk billing for all Australians under Labor, or more cuts to Medicare under Peter Dutton’s Liberals,” he said.

“Only Labor will deliver a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic in Terrigal so you can get the free urgent care you need, fully bulk billed, without waiting hours in a busy hospital emergency department.”