A Medicare Urgent Care Clinic (UCC) has opened at the Goonawarra Medical Centre.
The medical centre operates extended hours, seven days a week, with no need for an appointment. All services are fully bulk billed and provided by doctors and nurses. The clinic opened on Tuesday 27 June 2023.
Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler says the Goonawarra Medical Centre will make it easier to get urgent care “…without spending hours in a hospital waiting room”.
Patient survey data in Victoria shows that more than 50% of patients would have attended an emergency department if the clinics such as the medical centre were not available.
“The Sunbury Medicare UCC is just another way the Government is strengthening Medicare and making it easier to see a doctor,” says Butler.
According to Butler, more than one-third of all presentations to Victoria’s hospital emergency departments are for semi- and non-urgent conditions. He says Medicare UCCs are easing this pressure so hospitals can concentrate on higher-priority emergencies.
