MARK DREYFUS KC MP
MEMBER FOR ISAACS
JULIAN HILL MP
MEMBER FOR BRUCE
MORE CARE FOR MORE PATIENTS AT THE MEDICARE URGENT CARE CLINIC IN DANDENONG
A re-elected Albanese Labor Government will boost funding to the Medicare Urgent Care Clinic in Dandenong, ensuring Australians in Melbourne’s south east find it easier to get the free, urgent care they need, when they need it.
Since the Dandenong Medicare Urgent Care Clinic opened in February 2024 it has treated more than 11,000 patients, averaging around 60 people each day.
This makes the Medicare Urgent Care Clinic in Dandenong one of the busiest in Australia.
Labor is committing to an additional $8.4m in funding for Urgent Care Clinics with high patient throughput. Dandenong is one of 12 Urgent Care Clinics that will share in that funding, with specific allocations to be determined based on need and in discussion with local providers.
A re-elected Albanese Labor Government will work with the providers of the Urgent Care Clinic to determine the best way to boost the capacity of the clinic, whether through extending the hours it operates or bringing on additional staff.
We will also open another 50 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, with more clinics in every state and territory.
The Liberals say the Albanese Labor Government’s Urgent Care Clinics are “wasteful spending”. Peter Dutton will close every Medicare Urgent Care Clinic, forcing over a million Australians a year back into the waiting rooms of busy hospital emergency departments.
Medicare Urgent Care Clinics are open seven days a week, for extended hours. No appointment is needed, patients can walk in and receive free, urgent care – fully bulk billed – without waiting hours in a busy hospital emergency department.
Four in five Australians will live within a 20-minute drive of a bulk billed Medicare Urgent Care Clinic, once all of Labor’s clinics are open.
The Urgent Care Clinic in Dandenong is helping to ease pressure on the Dandenong Hospital, where 35 per cent of presentations in 2023-24 were for the kind of urgent, but not life-threatening issues that Urgent Care Clinics are equipped to treat.
Nationally, the 87 existing Medicare Urgent Care Clinics have already seen more than 1.3 million people since the first sites opened in June 2023. This includes almost more than 282,000 presentations to the 17 clinics in Victoria.
This is an election commitment.
Quotes attributable to Mark Dreyfus KC MP:
“The Dandenong Medicare Urgent Care Clinic has been a fantastic addition to our community and a re-elected Albanese Labor Government will boost its capacity so it can treat even more people.
“Only Labor will strengthen Medicare by delivering more bulk billing and more Urgent Care Clinics."
“I know many families that have used the Medicare Urgent Care Clinic when otherwise they would have been stuck waiting for hours at the Dandenong Hospital.”
Quotes attributable to Julian Hill MP:
“Medicare Urgent Care clinics are a fantastic new feature of our Australian healthcare system.
“Fully bulk billed, with extended hours seven days a week, they’ve helped thousands in our community avoid long waits in Emergency Departments.
“The Dandenong Urgent Care is particularly impressive, so it’s fantastic news that a re-elected Labor government will boost its capacity to treat even more patients in our local area.”
WEDNESDAY, 16 APRIL 2025
