WA after-hours clinic gets funding reprieve

A West Australian after-hours clinic has been saved from potential closure following a multi-pronged campaign, including sustained RACGP advocacy.
 
Concerns arose after the Albany After Hours GP Clinic was told its Federal Government funding would not be renewed beyond 30 June 2026.
 
The service was initially launched as a trial in 2018 by the Albany Afterhours GP Collaborative, a group comprised of five Albany based general practices, with the aim of easing pressure on the emergency department at the adjacent Albany Health Campus.
 
It has continued to operate with an expanded collective of local GPs who have joined the roster to staff the service on rotation.
 
Now, the community’s fears have been alleviated, with Albany Mayor Greg Stocks confirming the clinic would remain open after receiving funding in the 2026–27 Federal Budget.
 
‘The continuation of the After-Hours GP Clinic funding for the next two years is a vital outcome for our community, ensuring ongoing access to timely urgent care when it is needed most,’ he said.
 
‘With an ageing population and winter approaching, this service plays an important role in supporting community health and helping to ease pressure on our emergency department and broader health system.’
 
RACGP Vice President and RACGP WA Chair Dr Ramya Raman said it is ‘a relief to know’ the clinic’s funding has been reinstated.
 
‘The key aspect here is that the concept of after-hours care, or urgent care, well and truly belongs in general practice,’ she told newsGP.
 
‘Coming into winter especially, and our winter preparedness plan that the State Government is doing, I think it’s a good way forward.’
 
Dr Raman said one of the benefits of the after-hours clinic is that all consultation summaries are sent to the patients’ regular GPs, avoiding the risk of fragmentation of care.
 
‘This particular initiative is located right next to the hospital, and different GPs from around town are working in this area, and they obviously have a process, which is really important,’ she said.
 
The RACGP advocated for the clinic’s ongoing funding during a tour of regional WA by Dr Raman and RACGP President Dr Michael Wright, which included a visit to Albany.
 
The RACGP met with the Member for Albany, Scott Leary, to discuss the clinic’s plight. 
 
‘We said, “we need to really be ensuring that there is funding available for this and it doesn’t end by the end of June” and we also met with some of the GPs who are involved in the program in Albany,’ Dr Raman said.
 
‘We offered to do whatever we could, and I had some conversations when I came back to Perth as well.’
 
Mr Leary also went into bat for the clinic, saying that in 2025, it treated 2329 patients, ‘all for less than $500,000 a year’.
 
‘Cutting a proven, cost-effective service in Albany while funding new clinics elsewhere simply doesn’t make sense,’ he said.
 
While Dr Raman said the funding is ‘definitely welcome’, it only provides short-term stability for the clinic.
 
‘We’re really pleased that the community’s needs have also been heard, but the reality is with healthcare services, they need the long-term certainty, particularly in smaller rural towns and remote areas,’ she said.
 
‘Only then does it enable opportunities to plan for workforce infrastructure and service delivery.
 
‘The short funding cycle is a challenge because it makes recruitment and long-term planning much harder.’
 
Improving access to after-hours general practices was a key policy of a RACGP WA submission to the State Government ahead of the release of its May budget.
 
‘Patients want that out-of-hours service, and we want to be able to do that, but the cost of paying the staff to be able to deliver services after 5pm, or on a Saturday or Sunday, most of the time the general practice is absorbing the cost,’ Dr Raman said.
 
While the Federal Government allocated an extra $1.8 billion for urgent care clinics in its budget, Dr Raman said such ‘parallel structures’ are not the solution, as general practices ’in many areas of Australia already provide comprehensive continuous care to their communities’.
 
‘We need to recognise what some of the barriers are that are not allowing practices to be open after hours,’ she said.
 
‘It’s about addressing those rather than bringing up parallel structures, because then there’s an increased risk of fragmentation, increased risk of not having adequate communication through to the regular GP.
 
‘Convenience is actually being prioritised over quality here in terms of the delivery of quality and continuity, but it’s actually very important for patient safety and patient outcomes.’
 
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