GP urgent care launched to ease emergency department pressure

Tuesday, 10 September 2019 13:38

By Hannah Salt

An urgent care clinic network launched on Tuesday in a bid to ease pressure on hospital emergency departments.

The State Government introduced the GP Urgent Care Clinic pilot which will provide patients with non-life threatening medical conditions immediate treatment.

There are 125 participating practices across the Perth metro and South-West regions including in Rockingham and Mandurah, offering appointments between 8am and 8pm seven days a week.

GP Urgent Care Clinic locations in the Mandurah and Rockingham area. PIC: Health Direct.

Under the 18-month program, patients will also have access to pathology and radiology services, including fully-equipped treatment rooms to apply sutures, plastering and conduct minor procedures.

GP Urgent Care is supported alongside the new major campaign 'Not all urgencies are emergencies', which aims to highlight the alternative model of health care for non-emergency situations.

Figures show 190,000 emergency department attendances in 2017-18 could have potentially been avoided by treatment in primary care.

Health Minister Roger Cook said the Urgent Care Clinic is a new approach to solving this overcrowding.

"We are still seeing too many patients with non-life-threatening medical conditions at our busy emergency departments who could have been treated by General Practitioners," he said.

"We know that the majority of people who go to hospital emergency departments for non-life-threatening medical conditions arrive during the day.

"Having this new option gives those people more choice."

The pilot is delivered in partnership with the WA Primary Health Alliance.

To book a GP Urgent Care Clinic appointment visit http://gpurgentcare.com.au or call HealthDirect on 1800 022 222.