Health Minister visits Campbelltown to tour urgent care clinic
30 Aug 2024
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler took the opportunity to visit the improved facilities at the Medicare Urgent Care Clinic (UCC) at Campbelltown during a visit to the region on Tuesday, 30 July.
Mr Butler was joined by SWSPHN Planning and Performance Director Amy Prince, Macarthur MP, Dr Michael Freelander, and representatives from ForHealth which operates the clinic co-located at Campbelltown Medical and Dental Centre.
The Campbelltown Medicare UCC is one of three clinics providing Urgent Care in our region between the hours of 8am and 8pm (and extending to 10pm by the end of the year), seven days a week, with others at Liverpool and Bankstown. A fourth site will open at Fairfield in November.
Patients do not need an appointment or referral to access the service.
An Urgent Care Service is also open at Gregory Hills between 8am and 8pm. Patients can access the service by first calling healthdirect for free, anytime on 1800 022 222.
Mr Butler said Urgent Care Clinics were going from strength to strength.
NSW now has 20 operational Medicare UCCs. The clinics have seen more than 96,000 presentations to date.
During his visit, Mr Butler said the Campbelltown UCC, which opened last December, had already seen about 5,000 patients, “every single one of whom was fully bulk billed”.
“About one in three of them were kids under the age of 15, falling off skateboards, getting injured at sport.
“We know that the vast bulk of them, if they weren’t able to come to this clinic, would have waited hours and hours in the Campbelltown Hospital emergency department.
“(These clinics are) delivering free care where people need it, but also taking pressure off our hospitals.”
SWSPHN has worked closely with the Federal and State Governments to provide these services in our region.