Illawarra patients who face a choice between waiting weeks to see their family doctor or spending hours in Wollongong Hospital's crowded emergency department for minor ailments could be able to visit a new style of urgent care clinic if Labor is elected.
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Local candidates Alison Byrnes and Stephen Jones announced on Monday that one of the party's 50 promised Medicare urgent care clinics would be established in the Illawarra.
Meeting outside Wollongong Hospital, Ms Byrnes said the local clinic would help to take some of the pressure off the struggling health system.
"Over the past few months it has become harder for many local families to get in to see their GP, which has increased pressure on our already stretched local hospitals," she said.
She said the clinic - which would be located in an existing GP clinic or community health centres - would operate differently to the urgent care centre at Bulli Hospital, which has just reopened after closing for four months due to a lack of available doctors.
"Local GP clinics will have a bit more capacity for rostering using their existing medical professionals," Ms Byrnes said.
Whitlam candidate Stephen Jones said the clinics would operate in a similar way to large medical centres - such as those in Dapto or Wollongong - and would be delivered in addition to a raft of health measures announced by Labor over the weekend.
He said Labor had pledged $750 million to strengthen Medicare, and would relax the rules to allow for more overseas trained doctors to address the shortage of GPs into the Illawarra and South Coast.
Labor's state health spokesman Ryan Park acknowledged that there had been problems attracting doctors to work at the Bulli Urgent care Centre, but said the "different model" would allow the new clinics to be a success.
"Yes it has been difficult attracting doctors, certainly to the Bulli hospital site," Mr Park said.
"But this is slightly different model where we are basing it out of a GP premises and working with those local GPs."
Mr Park said he would work with local health district and primary health network to make sure the new clinic was located in the right spot, but noted there were particular challenges in areas like Warrawong and Port Kembla, which had a large number of elderly and disadvantaged people.
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has expressed cautious support for the clinics, as it builds on existing general practice clinics and infrastructure.
Wollongong doctor and RACGP council member Rowena Ivers said GPs were appreciative of the funding for urgent care clinics, especially as they would provide after hours care.
"It is a great initiative, and GPs are also appreciative of other new initiatives, like extra funding for general practices that was announced over the weekend," she said.
"With the urgent care centres, there needs to be recognition that it's after hours, and in terms of staffing, there's nursing, receptionists and GPs and radiographers if you're doing thing like X-rays after hours, so there needs to be funding for that."
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