‘Growing apprehension’ about UCCs’ workforce impact

Workforce shortages and concerns around continuity of care continue to impact urgent care clinics (UCCs), even as the initiative reduces non-life-threatening presentations to emergency departments.
 
That is according to a second interim evaluation report, commissioned by the Federal Government and published last week, which analysed 87 UCCs between June 2023 and August 2025.
 
It reported 1.82 million presentations to the clinics in that timeframe, as well as ‘reasonably strong evidence’ UCCs are reducing urgent care presentations to EDs at hospitals by up to 10%.
 
However, it found ‘no clear evidence’ there has been a knock-on effect on waiting times in EDs. It also indicated more than 8% of presentations are ‘more suited to routine GP care’ – a figure it says ‘may underrepresent the proportion of presentations with lower acuity needs’.
 
The number of UCCs has grown significantly since, following a Federal Government election commitment to increase to a total of 137.
 
‘As the Medicare UCC footprint expands, there is growing apprehension that the same pool of staff will be expected to support additional sites,’ the authors wrote.
 
‘There is concern that this expansion may increase reliance on locums and a casual workforce in some areas, contributing to higher operational costs and service instability.’
 
However, they also note gaps in current GP data, so far not identifying ‘any evidence through consultations of a widespread shift of staff from general practices to Medicare UCCs’.
 
‘While the practice of local GPs working one or two shifts a week in a Medicare UCC was frequently encountered, no other evidence is available at this stage to assess the extent to which Medicare UCCs are impacting workforce in the surrounding area,’ the report acknowledges.
 
It states that clinics, particularly in regional and rural areas, ‘reportedly still struggle to maintain a sufficient pool of qualified staff to meet operational requirements, resulting in intermittent clinic closures’ and that many depend on locum staff to fill rostering gaps or cover illness.
 
RACGP President Dr Michael Wright welcomed the report’s indication of a reduction in pressure on hospital EDs but echoed the staffing concerns.
 
‘We’ve got to make sure that they’re not increasing demands on an already stretched workforce,’ he told newsGP.  

‘With the increased training numbers through the college, that is going to relieve these pressures, but we are at a pinch point at the moment.’
 
He said another area of focus needs to be continuity of care, noting a reduction in presentations which had a handover directly back to the patient’s usual GP compared to an earlier evaluation, going down from 68% to 65%.
 
‘From a GP point of view, it’s really important that these services communicate back to the usual GP,’ Dr Wright said.
 
‘It’s disappointing to see that those numbers haven’t increased – that’s got to be a real area of focus.’
 
The report found 95% of respondents to a patient survey rated their care as good or very good, with median waiting times reduced to 13.2 minutes from the 14.5 minutes recorded in the first evaluation.
 
It also found the average cost per UCC presentation went down to $206 after initially hitting $246.50 at the time of the first evaluation.
 
As for those employed at the UCCs, four in five respondents to a medical staff survey said they had the opportunity to work to the top of their scope of practice, but only 59% said they found the workload manageable.  
 
‘It’s good to see that the costs are reducing now, but they’re still over $200 a service, which is a lot more than patients get when seeing their GP,’ Dr Wright said.
 
‘On a positive note, I am pleased to see that an increasing number of GPs are enjoying the variety of this work, and the fact that it lets them increase their procedural scope.’

The report contains the first substantial analysis of the impact on category four and five presentations to hospitals since the first tranche of UCCs opened in June 2023, with reducing pressure on EDs a driving reason for their set-up.
 
Speaking ahead of the opening of another UCC in New South Wales on Tuesday, Federal Health and Ageing Minister Mark Butler said the report reflects a ‘very material reduction’ in urgent and semi-urgent presentations but acknowledged room for improvement.
 
‘Making sure they’re staffed appropriately is obviously something we’re very focused on,’ he told the ABC.  
 
‘Making sure that over time these clinics get access to pathology, x-ray and other imaging services across the time that they’re open is obviously also very important.
 
‘To be fully effective we’ve got to learn those lessons, and this evaluation report is something I’ll be reading very closely.’

A final evaluation report is due to be completed by the end of 2026.
 
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Federal Government MBS Medicare urgent care clinics