Urgent care clinics five times the cost of a GP visit: Are they worth it?

The government’s push to roll out urgent care clinics is under scrutiny after an interim report revealed they cost five times more than a standard GP consultation. Despite a $759.9 million investment over five years to establish 87 clinics, the initative’s effectiveness remains uncertain, with critics arguing that the money could have been better spent on strengthening existing general practices.

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) President, Dr Michael Wright, said the interim report confirmed many of the organisation’s concerns while leaving key questions unanswered.

“The Government’s election commitment to roll out more urgent care clinics will mean more than $1 billion will be spent on setting up these clinics, and the report states that each presentation costs $246.50,” he explained. “This sum is cheaper than a visit to a hospital emergency department [$616 per presentation]; however, it’s significantly more expensive than a standard GP consult, which costs taxpayers a little over $42.”

The cost of urgent care clinics is not the only issue under scrutiny. The government promised that the clinics would operate from 8am to 10pm to help alleviate pressure on emergency departments, but Shadow Health Minister, Senator Anne Ruston, has previously criticised the program for failing to meet these hours. The interim report shows that while 80% of the clinics open by 8am, only half remain open until 8pm, with only a handful extending beyond this time.

It has been suggested that the urgent care clinics are likely to attract three key consumer groups: those requiring more complex care than a standard GP can provide but not serious enough for an emergency department; patients who need a GP but cannot secure a timely appointment; and those who cannot afford a co-payment and struggle to find a bulk-billing practice.

In a letter to the Department of Health last year, the Queensland branch of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) raised concerns that urgent care clinics were mostly open during standard hours, undercutting existing general practices rather than complementing them.

Dr Wright also emphasised the risk of urgent care clinics fragmenting patient care, particularly when there is inadequate communication between these clinics and a patient’s regular GP. He noted that only 68% of patient presentations to urgent care clinics had an electronic discharge summary sent to their usual GP, raising concerns about gaps in clinical handover.

“This constitutes inadequate clinical handover; because without this information, a GP may not even know that their patient went to an urgent care clinic, let alone what health issue they were being treated for. Proper clinical handover is particularly important for patients who have multiple, chronic health conditions that must be carefully monitored by a GP they know and trust,” he emphasised.

New Zealand has often been cited as an example of how urgent care can succeed, with the Royal New Zealand College of Urgent Care noting that the country has the lowest rate of emergency department attendance per capita in the developed world.

In Auckland, where there is a higher concentration of urgent care clinics than anywhere else in the country, emergency department attendance rates are significantly lower. However, whether this model can be effectively replicated in Australia remains uncertain, given ongoing concerns about workforce shortages, cost efficiency, and continuity of care.

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