New South Wales is partnering with Victoria to expand urgent care services across both States in a bid to ease record levels of demand on busy Emergency Departments as a result of COVID-19.
Announcing the partnership, Premier Dominic Perrottet said NSW and Victoria would each establish 25 urgent care services in partnership with chosen General Practitioners (GPs).
“The services will help ease pressure on emergency departments, give people faster care for urgent but non-critical conditions and free up critical resources for patients with more serious needs,” Mr Perrottet said.
“The GP-partnered services will be well equipped to handle conditions such as mild infections, fractures and burns,” he said.
“Services will operate for extended hours and patients will not be charged for services provided by GPs.”
Mr Perrottet said patients without a Medicare card would also be able to access the services free of charge.
He said NSW had recently established partnerships with GPs and Primary Health Networks in Western Sydney, the Murrumbidgee, Northern Sydney and Western NSW which was aimed at reducing the number of people presenting to emergency departments by providing community based, patient centred, urgent care.
The Premier said the locations of future urgent care services in NSW would be delivered where there was greatest need, based on the demands experienced by hospital emergency departments, including where services could be scaled up quickly.
“NSW emergency departments see more than three million patient presentations each year,” Mr Perrottet said.
“During the first quarter of 2022, there were 734,704 attendances at emergency departments, with hospitals throughout the State continuing to experience sustained, high demand for emergency care.”
