Nurses in urgent care clinics say they’re overworked due to staff shortages
While patients are satisfied, only 40% of nurses and doctors feel their Medicare urgent care clinic has enough staff.
Almost half the nurses in urgent care clinics report feeling overworked, with staffing shortages set to worsen as further centres open, according to a new report.
Recruiting nursing staff continued to be “challenging” for the Medicare-funded clinics, the interim report on their operation said.
And while urgent care clinics (UCCs) were reducing ED presentation rates and providing care with an average wait time of only 13.2 minutes, workforce issues were an ongoing problem.
Clinics, particularly in regional areas, were struggling to stay open as a result, with some intermittently closing or relying on locum staff, the report from consultancy firm Nous Group said.
