PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS
Mr GOSLING (Solomon) (11:04): I move: That this House: (1) welcomes the Government delivering on its promise to open an additional 50 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, with all 137 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics now operating across Australia, providing bulk billed urgent care; (2) notes there have been more than 3.2 million presentations to Medicare Urgent Care Clinics nationwide, reducing pressure on local hospital emergency departments; and (3) commends the Government's record $8.5 billion investment to strengthen Medicare with more bulk billing and more doctors and nurses, delivering free health care for Australians.
The Albanese Labor government's Medicare urgent care clinics are an absolute game changer for our nation. When we came to government in 2022, it had never been harder or more expensive to find a doctor. That's why strengthening Medicare was a key focus of our election platform.
The Albanese Labor government has made the single largest investment in Medicare since its creation over 40 years ago, and, in the budget, we made Medicare urgent care clinics permanent, including long-term certainty for the NT's eight clinics, which includes the new Darwin clinic that opened last month on Osgood Drive in Eaton. No appointments are required to get the urgent non-emergency bulk-billed care that you need when you need it, with extended hours seven days a week.
This is taking the pressure off Royal Darwin Hospital in the same way that the Palmerston urgent care clinic is taking pressure off the Palmerston Regional Hospital and their ED. The first month of Darwin Medicare urgent care clinic operations has generated additional urgent care capacity and additional patient activity. Rather than simply shifting activity away from the Palmerston Medicare urgent care clinic, total urgent care activity has materially increased.
Combined first month activity across both Darwin and Palmerston urgent care clinics was over 2,400 presentations, more than double the previous month when there was only the Palmerston urgent care clinic. Presentations continue to be predominantly acute illness with acute injury remaining a substantial but smaller component. One of my constituents, a local from Darwin, accidentally stood on a rusty nail and moved to the Darwin urgent care clinic to get that injury cleaned out and to get a tetanus booster.
They are just one of the very satisfied customers that didn't have to go to the Royal Darwin Hospital ED. The catchment profile supports the strategic rationale for the two urgent care clinics in the electorate of Solomon, Palmerston continues to serve the people of Palmerston, Litchfield and the rural or northern Greater Darwin catchments, where the member for Lingiari represents, while the Darwin urgent care clinic establishes a Darwin facing access point for urgent care in the city suburbs and the northern suburbs of Darwin.
The ED related data supports the hospital avoidance intent of the urgent care clinic model. A higher than national proportion of patients at both Darwin and Palmerston Urgent Care Clinics reported that they would otherwise have gone to the local emergency department. The President of the AMA in the Northern Territory, Dr John Zorbas, will find this data interesting.
He knows well the demands on the Royal Darwin Hospital and Palmerston Regional Hospital emergency departments, and the data also suggests that these urgent care clinics are attracting ED substitution presentations while still resolving most episodes safely within the urgent care clinic setting. Our historic $8.5 billion investment in Medicare is delivering more bulk-billing and more doctors so that Australians can see a GP for free and get the care that they need when they need it.
Since our investment in bulk billing kicked off on 1 November 2025, 25 practices in Darwin and Palmerston are now fully bulk-billing. The NT had the biggest increase in bulk-billing rates, up by 13.7 per cent to a whopping 89.7 per cent, to be the highest bulk-billing jurisdiction in the country. Territorians are really taking advantage of the fact that under Labor they can now get access to bulk-billing care when they need it.
To put that in perspective, the national rate was 81.9 per cent. Our bulk billing reforms are absolutely working. The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Mr Buchholz ): Is the motion seconded?
Ms Jarrett: I second the motion.