Medicare Expands: 50 New Urgent Care Clinics
A re-elected Albanese Labor Government will build on its historic investment in Medicare to expand the availability of free, urgent care, with a $644 million commitment to open another 50 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, with more clinics in every state and territory.
The Albanese Labor Government went to the last election promising to open 50 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, and we have delivered 87 clinics.
The new clinics will open during the 2025-26 financial year. A full list of the locations of the additional 50 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics is available below.
Once all of Labor’s clinics are open, 4 in 5 Australians will live within a 20-minute drive of a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic, according to analysis by the Department of Health and Aged Care.
All you will need is your Medicare card, not your credit card.
More than 1.2 million Australians have already been treated at one of Labor’s existing 87 Urgent Care Clinics, which provide bulk billed care for urgent but non-life-threatening conditions, seven days a week, for extended hours, with no appointment needed.
Parents and families swear by them: one third of patients are under the age of 15.
The Liberals say the Albanese Labor Government’s Urgent Care Clinics are “wasteful spending”. Peter Dutton will close every Medicare Urgent Care Clinic, forcing over a million Australians a year back into the waiting rooms of busy hospital emergency departments.
Doctors have embraced the clinics, with a survey finding 7 in 10 GPs support Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, and 8 in 10 GPs say they have a positive impact on hospital emergency departments.
Around 2 million Australians are expected to make use of an Urgent Care Clinic each year, getting the free urgent care they need, fully bulk billed, without waiting hours in a busy hospital emergency department.
This extends Labor’s election commitment to strengthening Medicare, with the single largest investment in Medicare since its creation over 40 years ago:
The $644 million investment for 50 more Medicare Urgent Care Clinics was provisioned for in 2024-25 MYEFO.
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“This announcement of 50 additional Urgent Care Clinics if we are re-elected will provide the urgent care people need – and all you will need is your Medicare card, not your credit card.
“Labor is building Australia’s future with the largest investment in Medicare in over 40 years.
“Whether your family needs urgent or ongoing health care, under Labor, Medicare will be there for all Australians, in every community.
“Four in five Australians will live within a 20-minute drive of a bulk billed Medicare Urgent Care Clinic, once all Labor’s clinics are open.”
“Australia’s doctors voted Peter Dutton the worst Health Minister in Medicare history for a reason.
“The Liberals had nine years to open Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, and they never opened a single one. Now they call Labor’s clinics ‘wasteful spending’ and want to close every single one of them.
“Medicare Urgent Care Clinics are an Albanese Government initiative because we believe in Medicare and in free urgent care, fully bulk billed.
“You can’t trust the Liberals with Medicare: you can’t trust them to open Urgent Care Clinics and you can’t trust them to keep them open.”
https://www.pm.gov.au/media/strengthening-medicare-50-more-medicare-urgent-care-clinics