Source: Prime Minister of Australia
PETER KHALIL, MEMBER FOR WILLS: Good afternoon, everyone. It is wonderful to have the Prime Minister visit the new Coburg Medicare Urgent Care Clinic here at 444 Sydney Road, in the heart of Coburg. It’s a wonderful location, and it’s very, very popular with all the community members that I’ve been talking to about the grand opening, which is going to happen at 8am on Monday morning. But it’s great to have the Prime Minister here to officially open the new MUCC. I will say we’ve also got Ged Kearney here, my great neighbour in the neighbouring electorate of Cooper, who’s done a terrific amount of work, not just on Medicare, but particularly on women’s health. We were just talking about that, when she was Assistant Minister for Health in the first term. So, a lot of great work there.
This is one of the legacy pieces of the Albanese Government, that the amount of impact that it has on the community. The investment in Medicare, the investment in bulk billing, investment in these Medicare Urgent Care Clinics is going to be remembered and acknowledged for generations, because it has a real impact on community. Every person I speak to out there on Sydney Road, when I say we’re opening up this new Medicare Urgent Care Clinic, their eyes light up. They say, ‘this is fantastic. We need this.’ Being able to get this kind of non-life threatening, but urgent care late at night on weekends is a must for this community. So, it’s very, very popular. And I’m so pleased that we were able to get one here in Coburg. We need one in this part of Melbourne. And the Prime Minister and the Minister for Health, Mark Butler, have done a terrific job in this space. So, thank you, Prime Minister, for that commitment to health care for Australians. And it is going to be great to open this up on Monday, which happens to also be my birthday. So I’m looking forward to coming down at 8am – not to get any treatment, but just to see the first patients come through. My office is just down the road. So, with that, I’ll hand over to the PM to say a few words. Thanks, Prime Minister.
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Here, of course, with the Medicare Urgent Care Clinic, this is one of the 137 that we’ve committed to. Almost all of them are now open. We promised in 2022 to deliver 50. We delivered 87. And then in the election, just last year, less than a year ago, we promised another 50, and almost all of them are opened. The final ones opening in these weeks. And we’re hoping that they’re all open before the Budget. Now, these are fantastic. And this one here, of course, is brand spanking new. And I want to pay tribute to the doctors and the nurses and the health professionals who will service people who come here without notice, just rock up, that’s what you can do to get the health care you need when you need it. So, it’s important for people’s health. And the people I’ve spoken to in Urgent Care Clinics right around the country, the satisfaction rate is extraordinary. They’re shocked that they can rock up here, for themselves or for their children, because one in three of the more than two million people who’ve received support through a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic are under the age of 16. They can rock up, get the care they need when they need it. Really important for people’s health. But not just for people’s health – also good for the health of their bank balance. Because all they need is this little piece of plastic. All they need is their green and gold Medicare card. It’s green and gold for a reason, because it speaks about Australian values, that whether you’re a billionaire or whether you are someone who is under financial difficulty, you get the same care, and that is absolutely important to who we are. The third thing it’s good for, of course, is the overall health system, because it takes pressure off the emergency departments of hospitals. If someone has a broken arm or someone has a cut, they can get come here instead of waiting hour after hour, while more acute and life threatening cases jump the queue – quite rightly – ahead of them in emergency departments. So, it’s taking pressure off them as well. A good primary health care system is so important.
Now, when you combine this with the tripling of the bulk billing incentive, that has seen more than 1,300 clinics, not just individuals, but clinics, go to fully bulk billing every single patient with just their Medicare card required, now that is making an enormous difference as well, with bulk billing rates rising after the decline that occurred under the former government. And so that, together with the $25 billion of additional investment we’ve put into the hospital system through state governments, with our Health and Hospitals Agreement for the next five years, it just shows the work that we are doing on health is making an incredible difference. And congratulations to everyone – for Peter who fought to get this Urgent Care Clinic right here. It will make a difference to the lives of people in this local community. Happy to take some questions.
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