The Albanese Government is delivering for residents in Central Queensland with the opening of the Gladstone Medicare Urgent Care Clinic.
Located at 7-9 Goondoon Street, Gladstone, the Gladstone Medicare Urgent Care Clinic is now open extended hours, seven days a week.
No appointment is needed, patients can walk in and all services are bulk billed.
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 Gladstone Medicare Urgent Care Clinic will ease pressure on the busy Gladstone Hospital, where around 52 per cent of presentations in 2023-24 were for semi-urgent or non-urgent conditions.
The clinic will join the existing network of 16 existing UCCs across Queensland with a further 8 to be established across the state. Around Australia, 94 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics have now been established.
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‑minute drive from their local clinic.
Labor's Medicare Urgent Care Clinics have already seen more than 2.2 million presentations since the first sites opened in June 2023, including over 439,800 presentations to Queensland Medicare Urgent Care Clinics.
Over one in four of these were patients aged under 15 years old, more than one in four were on weekends, and over one in four were weekday after hours visits (at or after 5pm).
Both clinics are commissioned by Central Queensland, Wide Bay, Sunshine Coast Primary Health Network.
Quotes attributable to Minister Butler:
"The Gladstone Medicare Urgent Care Clinic is a game changer for families in Central Queensland.
"The new Medicare Urgent Care Clinic will ease pressure on the emergency department at Gladstone Hospital, and free up staff at the hospital to provide care to people with more serious conditions.
"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 McBride:
"More than 29,000 Central Queenslanders have accessed care at the Rockhampton Medicare Urgent Care Clinic since it opened in 2023.
"The new Gladstone Medicare Urgent Care Clinic will provide greater access to urgent care, 7 days a week, over extended hours.
"The Albanese Labor Government is strengthening Medicare by delivering more fully bulk-billed healthcare for people in rural and regional communities."
Quotes attributable to Assistant Minister Chisholm:
"Gladstone families now have access to more bulk-billed, walk-in care in their community.
"The opening of another Urgent Care Clinic in regional Queensland means more accessible and more affordable healthcare for Queenslanders.
"We know that the new clinic will ease pressure on the healthcare system in Gladstone - freeing up staff at Gladstone Hospital and providing patients another option for fully bulk-billed care."
