The Albanese Government is delivering for residents in Cairns with the opening of the Cairns North Medicare Urgent Care Clinic.
Located at 7-11 Mount Millman Drive, Smithfield, the Cairns North Medicare Urgent Care Clinic is now open extended hours, seven days a week.
The Cairns North Medicare Urgent Care Clinic joins the Cairns South Medicare Urgent Care Clinic in providing walk‑in, fully bulk‑billed urgent care services to the Cairns community.
The Cairns North Medicare Urgent Care Clinic will improve access for people living in northern Cairns by offering a care option closer to home.
The highly trained doctors and nurses are equipped to treat a range of conditions and injuries that need urgent attention but aren't life threatening, including cuts, viral infections, or a sprained ankle.
The Cairns North Medicare Urgent Care Clinic will help to ease pressure on the Cairns Hospital emergency department, where around 31 per cent of presentations in 2024-25 were for semi-urgent or non-urgent conditions.
The clinic is part of the existing network of 25 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics across Queensland with one further clinic to be established in the state over the coming months.
This is part of the Albanese Government's commitment to deliver more Medicare Urgent Care Clinics across the country with 4 out of 5 Australians to live within a 20 minutes' drive from their local clinic.
Labor's Medicare Urgent Care Clinics have already seen more than 2.6 million presentations since the first sites opened in June 2023, including over 536,100 presentations to Medicare Urgent Care Clinics in Queensland.
Over one in four of these were patients aged under 15 years old, more than one in four were on weekends, and one in four were weekday after hours visits (at or after 5pm).
The Cairns North Medicare Urgent Care Clinic is commissioned by the Northern Queensland Primary Health Network.
Quotes attributable to Minister Butler:
"We're delivering on our promise to open more Medicare Urgent Care Clinics in Queensland.
"This new clinic will be open seven days a week, for extended hours and most importantly patients will be fully bulk billed.
"This clinic is a key part of the Albanese Government's commitment to strengthen Medicare and make health care more accessible and affordable."
Quotes attributable to Assistant Minister Nita Green:
"Medicare Urgent Care Clinics are game changer, and with the opening of this UCC most people in Cairns will now live within a 20-minute drive from an Urgent Clinic.
"Federal Member Matt Smith asked the community and heard loud and clear their support for another Urgent Clinic and now he has delivered.
"The Anthony Albanese Labor Government delivers for regional Queenslanders."
Quotes attributable to Matt Smith MP:
"This clinic will make a real difference for locals by providing convenient, bulk billed urgent care right here in the heart of Cairns North.
"The opening of the clinic is a huge win for our community, taking the pressure off the emergency department at the Cairns Hospital.
"During the campaign we collected 100's of signatures from right across the community calling for an Urgent Care Clinic for the North of Cairns. Today I am proud to deliver on that commitment.
I would like to thank everyone who was involved in the campaign, everyone who signed the petition, everyone who knocked on a door to help in the creation of this facility."
