Urgent care clinics similar to the one which operates out of Bulli Hospital could spring up in more places, under a Labor election commitment to set up 50 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics across the country.
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Anthony Albanese has pledged $135 million across four years to establish a trial of the clinics, which would treat sprains and broken bones, stitches and glue for cuts, wound care, insect bites, minor ear and eye problems and minor burns.
Labor's candidate for Cunningham Alison Byrnes said the clinics would treat conditions similar to those seen to at Bulli, and would take the pressure off the hospital system and help to make sure patients were seen quicker in emergency departments.
"The staff at Wollongong hospital are always lovely, but they are under pressure, and it's not sustainable at the moment," Ms Byrnes said.
"I was there wth a friend recently and he waited more than five hours in pain, and he ended up leaving without being treated."
She said the planned clinics would be based at GP surgeries and community health centres providing an alternative option for families needing urgent care from a doctor or nurse.
Locations have not been announced, but they would be open from 8am to 10pm, which Labor says is the time when the majority of non-life-threatening injuries occur.
Labor's proposal is based on a New Zealand model, where urgent care clinics deal with about 2.5 million consultations a year. The country has the lowest rate of emergency department attendance per capita in the developed world.
The NSW Government's Bulli Hospital Urgent Care Centre - which deals with similar injuries as outlined in Labor's urgent care clinic plan - has been closed since Christmas Eve, so that staff can be diverted to Wollongong's under resourced emergency department and COVID-19 response.
State MP Ryan Park has been calling for it to reopen, as it would provide a "pressure release" for the city's overburdened emergency department.
The Illawarra Shoalhaven Health District has set no reopening date for the centre, except says the centre will be opened "as soon as possible, based on the availability of medical staffing".
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Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
