The Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP) has warned an interim report on urgent care clinics shows they are five times more expensive than a standard GP consult, and their value in addressing Australia's patient care challenges remains unclear.
The interim evaluation report assesses the impact of urgent care clinics in their first six months of operation. Earlier this month, the College spoke out on the Federal Government's commitment to build an extra 50 bulk billing urgent care clinics by mid-2026 prior to a proper evaluation of the program.
RACGP President, Dr Michael Wright, said the interim report validated many of the RACGP's concerns regarding urgent care clinics and still left many unanswered questions.
"The report confirms what we already knew, urgent care clinics are an expensive model of care, which could be better and more efficiently delivered through existing general practices," he said.
"The Government's election commitment to roll out more urgent care clinics will mean more than $1 billion will be spent on setting up these clinics, and the report states that each presentation costs $246.50. This sum is cheaper than a visit to a hospital emergency department; however, it's significantly more expensive than a standard GP consult, which costs taxpayers a little over $42. So, your average urgent care clinic visit, seeing a GP who you may not even know, is more than five times as expensive as a consult with your regular GP.
"All specialist GPs are trained to perform urgent care, and all practices and GPs routinely provide urgent care to their patients. Accessing urgent care through general practice improves patient health outcomes because continuity of care is embedded. The best, most cost-effective way to increase access to urgent care and ease pressure on hospitals is to support existing practices expand their current services, including offering more after-hours services.
"If the funding dedicated to urgent care clinics instead went to practices, we could be doing much more to help patients with urgent care needs. There's no substitute for the high-quality care provided by a GP who knows you, and your history, including in urgent care situations."
Dr Wright said urgent care clinics can also fragment patient care.
"A concern raised by a number of GPs is the lack of communication between urgent care clinics and a patient's usual GP," he said.
"The report reveals that only 68% of patient presentations to urgent care clinics had an electronic discharge summary to their usual GP. This constitutes inadequate clinical handover; because without this information, a GP may not even know that their patient went to an urgent care clinic, let alone what health issue they were being treated for.
"Best practice clinical handover involves one health practitioner providing patient information to another, it's much more than simply handing a patient a letter to give to their GP. If the transfer of care isn't done properly and in a timely way, there is a risk of fragmenting care, which results in poorer patient health outcomes, including preventable hospitalisations. Proper clinical handover is particularly important for patients who have multiple, chronic health conditions that must be carefully monitored by a GP they know and trust."
The RACGP President also reiterated concerns regarding GP workforce pressures
"We're making headway, but Australia's GP workforce is stretched, particularly in rural and remote areas," he said.
"We value the work that our members are doing in urgent care clinics and will continue to support them – they're playing a key role in keeping patients in their community healthy. Our concerns relate to the cost of these clinics, fragmented patient care, and how they will be staffed.
"GP workforce pressures must always be front of mind for government, and we're concerned about the impact of urgent care clinics on the viability and workforce needs of general practice. There is a risk these clinics are creating competition for an already stretched GP workforce."
