Government hands extra $1.8b to UCCs

Urgent care clinics (UCCs) will remain a permanent fixture in the Australian healthcare system, the Federal Government has confirmed – but the RACGP has concerns about the move.
 
On Sunday, it announced an additional $1.8 billion over five years from 2025–26, with $525.6 million annually from 2030–31 to keep UCCs open.
 
A Labor Party election promise in 2022, the walk-in, bulk-billed clinics with extended opening hours were first introduced in 2023 and have rapidly expanded since.
 
While acknowledging the ‘excellent’ care carried out by many GPs at those UCCs, RACGP President Dr Michael Wright said their full impact on wider general practice and its workforce is yet to be fully understood.
 
‘Urgent care is something that all general practices routinely provide,’ he told newsGP.
 
‘A lot of talented GPs are working in these UCCs, providing excellent care – but it is an expensive model of care and we want to make sure that all practices are supported to maintain their financial viability.
 
‘From the beginning, we’ve been concerned that by supporting a small number of sites, this program may prop up some practices while potentially destabilising others within local areas.
 
‘That does remain a concern.
 
‘We’re still waiting to see the evaluation to show the impact of the UCCs on surrounding practices.’
 
The Federal Government initially promised funding for 54 clinics, which went up to 87 in 2024.
 
Following a further commitment ahead of last year’s Federal Election, there are now 135 clinics around the country, with two more scheduled to open by July this year – 47 of these are based in regional, rural and remote areas.
 
According to the Government, there have been almost three million UCC presentations since they first opened in June 2023, with Federal Health and Ageing Minister Mark Butler describing them as a ‘gamechanger’.

‘More people, more of the time, are getting free, urgent care close to home,’ he said.
 
However, Dr Wright is calling for more transparency and accountability around this ‘large public investment’.
 
‘We’ve been concerned about how these centres were chosen, the potential for fragmentation and the impacts of being much better funded than regular general practice,’ he said.
 
‘Now that the Government’s announced its intention to continue the program, we have to make sure they’re achieving what they were set up for, and become more than political ribbon-cutting exercises. 
 
‘We need to make sure that they are accountable for the large amount of public money being used to set them up.
 
‘We need to make sure they have the same rigour and quality of care as general practices and that they’re providing the services that Australians need. 
 
‘We need to monitor to ensure these services are supporting general practices and not fragmenting care – leading to worse health outcomes and worsening health costs.’
 
A second interim evaluation report on UCCs released in February acknowledged concerns about the potential impact on workforce shortages and continuity of care.
 
That report analysed 87 UCCs between June 2023 and August 2025, finding ‘reasonably strong evidence’ UCCs had reduced urgent care-style presentations to hospital emergency departments by up to 10%.
 
Around 45% of patients surveyed said they would have sought emergency care or called an ambulance without the availability of a UCC.
 
However, the report said there is ‘no clear evidence’ of any impact on ED waiting times and suggested more than 8% of presentations are ‘more suited to routine GP care’ – a figure authors say could underestimate the reality.
 
It also noted concern that the UCC expansion ‘may increase reliance on locums and a casual workforce in some areas, contributing to higher operational costs and service instability’.
 
The authors said the evaluation ‘to date’ had not identified any evidence of a widespread shift from general practices to UCCs, but cited a newsGP poll in which 80% of respondents said more UCCs would place ‘additional strain’ on the GP workforce.
 
A final evaluation report on the impact of UCCs is due by the end of this year.
 
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