Can urgent care GPs live up to politicians’ lofty ambitions?
Ballarat GP Dr Matthew Nigro has signed up to work at one of the first centres to open in Victoria
The idea of urgent care GPs appears to excite politicians.
The federal Labor Party promised to launch 50 GP-run urgent care clinics by mid-2023 as part of its election campaign, which it now has a mandate to deliver on.
The concept inspired an unusual show of unity between Victoria’s Labor Premier Daniel Andrews and NSW’s Liberal Premier Dominic Perrottet, who jointly announced state-based funding for their own GP urgent care centres.
The pitch was to fund GP practices to extend their hours, so that patients who might otherwise head to overcrowded EDs, just to be triaged as category four or five, would see a GP instead.
