WATCH: Offical opening of the Cessnock Medicare Urgent Care Clinic. 6th October 2023 // Newcastle Herald

Offical opening of Cessnock Medicare Urgent Care Clinic, with Hunter MP Dan Repacholi and Assistant Minister for Health Emma McBride.

Transcript

00:00 And we are to prepare Cessnock urgent care for being officially spoken for.

00:05 [Applause]

00:08 This will relieve so much from our emergency departments at Cessnock, at Maitland as well.

00:15 This will be an amazing thing of what happens for this area.

00:18 And I thank the PHN, I want to thank ELBO, I want to thank Mr Butler as well, Minister Butler,

00:25 also Jed Carney and also Emma McBride for all the work they've done in making sure that we can have

00:31 urgent care clinics all around Australia.

00:34 This is one of 14 in New South Wales and I can tell you I'm so proud to have this in the Hunter electorate

00:40 and I really think it will be a massive benefit to our area. So thank you all.

00:44 Because after almost a decade of cuts and neglect, it was never harder or more expensive for people to see a doctor,

00:51 particularly in rural and remote communities including here in Cessnock in the Hunter.

00:57 Which is why we made the biggest investment in Medicare in its 40 year history in the budget,

01:03 tripling the bulk billing incentive to make it more affordable for local people in communities like Cessnock

01:09 to be able to see a GP.

01:12 That will benefit 5 million children and families around Australia and up to 7 million pensioners

01:20 and make it much more affordable for them and easier to see a bulk billing GP.

01:24 We've had a few patients come in on the first day and then we've had a lot more on the next day

01:40 and it's increasing every day. Word of mouth I think once people know about us.

01:46 We don't want people to have to come to the Urgent Care Clinic but we're absolutely glad that we can actually help people

01:53 when they do need to come and have that sort of treatment.

01:56 Having a purpose built facility is a pleasure to come to work every day.

02:00 Our nurses have got heaps of room to move around and I think that's why we've been able to include the Urgent Care Clinic

02:06 into our general practice and we just work alongside one another. We have all the space.

02:10 Yeah, it's lovely. Really nice.

02:12 Yeah, it's really fun.

02:13 [Music plays]