RACGP rejects call for nurse practitioners to lead UCCs

The Australian College of Nursing (ACN) says nurse practitioners must be allowed to lead urgent care clinics (UCCs) independently amid ongoing workforce shortages.
 
The nursing college is calling on the Federal Government to revise guidelines to allow nurse practitioners to take on the greater role, with current rules mandating UCCs be GP-led.
 
ACN Chief Executive Adjunct Profession Kathryn Zeitz said the change would be a ‘more strategic use of nurse practitioners and nurses’ and would significantly improve access to urgent care.
 
‘The promise of UCCs, to reduce pressure on hospital emergency departments and deliver timely care in communities, is being undermined by the staffing and MBS rules that ignore the proven capabilities of the nurse practitioner workforce,’ she said.
 
‘Nurse practitioners are perfectly positioned to help take pressure off our strained emergency departments and hospital systems – which is the very point of Medicare UCCs.
 
‘This reform represents a logical next step.’
 
However, RACGP President Dr Michael Wright said that despite ‘greatly valuing’ the role of nurse practitioners in our healthcare system’, the college does not support a nurse-practitioner-led model of care.
 
‘UCCs should be GP-led and must be staffed by highly trained GPs and nurses working together collaboratively to provide high quality emergency care to patients,’ he told newsGP.
 
‘The clinics must be well-connected to general practice to avoid fragmented care and ensure best practice clinical handover.
 
‘When urgent care clinics are built within existing general practices, it strengthens existing community health services and avoids duplication and wastage of public funds.’
 
The ACN’s call follows a second interim evaluation report, which analysed 87 UCCs between June 2023 and August 2025.
 
The report found that ‘workload pressures and recruitment remained significant issues’ with the clinics.
 
It states that UCCs, particularly in regional and rural areas, ‘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.
 
Last year, a newsGP poll asking GPs whether the rollout of additional UCCs will place ‘additional strain or negatively impact the already limited GP workforce’ found 79% of the 1536 respondents voted ‘yes’.
 
The ACN says allowing nurse practitioners to lead would help address this issue.
 
‘Outdated staffing and MBS provisions are preventing UCCs from operating at extended hours and blocking access to safe, high-quality urgent care,’ Ms Zeitz said.
 
‘Further, the mandatory GP presence requirement echoes the now-abolished ‘collaborative arrangements’ legislation – a regulatory relic dismantled in 2023 because it was recognised as an outdated barrier to patient access that hampered nurse practitioners’ ability to work autonomously.’
 
But Dr Wright said the lead role remains firmly with GPs.
 
‘The best value model of urgent care for patients and government health budgets is GPs working collaboratively with nurses,’ he said.
 
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