GP complaints about urgent care clinics have started fading, says GP Professor John Adie, who compares the shift to orthopaedic surgeons slowly accepting primary care fracture clinics.

The Federal Government celebrated the launch of its 137th urgent care clinic (UCC) on Wednesday, meeting the target it set for itself during the 2025 election campaign.

Doctors have accused them of being “glittery political trinkets” that cost five times as much as standard GP care and lure GPs away from other practices.

But speaking at Informa’s Urgent Care Clinics Conference in Sydney last week, Professor Adie said the clinics were following the same trajectory as other scope of practice expansions in primary care.