The Albanese Government is delivering on its commitment to Far North Queenslanders, with the Cairns South Medicare Urgent Care Clinic (Medicare UCC) opening on Tuesday 19 December 2023 at Balance! Edmonton Family Practice.
This Medicare UCC delivers on the Australian Government’s commitment to make it easier for Queenslanders to get the urgent treatment they need – from highly qualified doctors and nurses – while taking pressure off the Cairns Hospital.
The Medicare UCC will be open for extended hours, 7 days a week, and offer walk-in care that is fully bulk billed.
More than 35 per cent of presentations to the Cairns Hospital are for non-urgent or semi-urgent care.
The Cairns South UCC is the final clinic to open out of the 11 Medicare UCCs across QLD – located in Bundaberg, Gold Coast, Ipswich, Logan (Browns Plains), Murrumba Downs (Redcliffe), Brisbane Northside, Rockhampton, Brisbane South, Townsville and Toowoomba.
Quotes attributable to Minister Butler:
“The Cairns South Medicare UCC is going to make a big difference to patients in the greater Cairns area.
“Local communities will be able to walk in, see a doctor or nurse and access imaging and pathology services.
“The Albanese Government is committed to strengthening Medicare and making it easier and cheaper to get quality healthcare, by tripling the bulk billing incentive and making medicines cheaper.
Quotes attributable to Minister Fentiman:
“Cairns families deserve free, high-quality health care close to home – and that’s exactly what the new Medicare Urgent Care Clinic will provide.
“This clinic will ease pressure on the Cairns Hospital, so that its hard-working doctors and nurses can focus higher priority emergencies.
“It’s terrific to see that after a decade of underinvestment in primary care by the former LNP federal government, Australians now have a government that takes healthcare seriously.”
Quotes attributable to Senator Green:
“The Cairns South Medicare UCC will mean people in this community who need urgent but not acute care, can get it quickly even if it’s outside standard hours – and all they’ll need is their Medicare card.
“I know many families who have had to wait long hours at the emergency department for non-life-threatening issues.
“This Medicare UCC will ease pressure on local EDs and be much more convenient for our communities – closer to home, at short notice, and bulk billed under Medicare.”
