General News
12 March, 2025
Urgent clinic pledges
CAIRNS is to get an urgent care clinic with both major federal parties committing to the service.
LNP candidate for Leichhardt Jeremy Neal last Saturday announced that an elected Dutton Liberal National government would deliver a new urgent care clinic for Cairns.
Labor’s candidate Matt Smith followed suit on Monday with a similar pledge for one at Cairns North in addition to the existing urgent care clinic at Edmonton.
Urgent care clinics provide a critical health service by offering walk-in, bulk-billed treatments for illnesses and injuries that are urgent, but not life-threatening.
Mr Neal said in his 15 years’ experience as a paramedic and his time as a dad, he had witnessed firsthand how the rising cost of seeing a GP under Labor had placed more pressure on existing local hospitals and urgent care clinics.
“Local families are struggling to pay their bills, their groceries and their rent and mortgages, and after three years of Labor, they’re also having to fork out 45 per cent more to see a GP,” Mr Neal said.
“Medicare bulk billing rates have collapsed from 88 percent under the last Liberal National government to 77 per cent under Albanese’s Labor government.
“I will never accept a situation where members of our community can’t access the healthcare they need.”
Queensland Senator Susan McDonald said investing in new health services for a growing region like Leichhardt was critical.
“I have spoken to countless families that, as a result of Labor’s cost-of-living crisis, are having to choose between putting food on the table or healthcare,” Senator McDonald said.
“The rising cost of seeing a GP means urgent care clinics have become one of the only remaining avenues for communities to access bulk-billing medical services, which is why it is critical that we make more available.”
Mr Smith said Labor would open a Medicare urgent care clinic at Cairns North as part of a $644 million commitment to open another 50 urgent care clinics.
He said if Labor was re-elected, the clinic would begin operating in the 2025-26 financial year, providing bulk billed care for urgent but non-life-threatening conditions, seven days a week.
“At this election, Australia faces a choice: a stronger Medicare with more bulk billing for all Australians under Labor, or more cuts to Medicare under Peter Dutton’s LNP,” Mr Smith said.
“I’ve been petitioning in the northern suburbs for a Medicare urgent care clinic, and after securing hundreds of signatures, I am proud to announce that a Medicare UCC will be delivered,” he said.
“Only Labor will deliver a Medicare urgent care clinic in northern Cairns so you can get the free urgent care you need, fully bulk billed, without waiting hours in a busy hospital emergency department.”
Labor Senator for Queensland Nita Green said the LNP had nine years to open Medicare urgent care clinics “and they never opened a single one”.
“Now they call Labor’s clinics ‘wasteful spending’ and want to close every single one of them,” she said.
