Tasmanian health minister Guy Barnett is concerned that Tassie won’t receive a big enough piece of the pie in a $227 million contribution towards opening of 29 more Medicare Urgent Care Clinics across Australia, expected to be confirmed in Tuesday night’s Federal Budget.
Mr Barnett says the Feds have been sitting on the funding since December, which he says will be grossly inadequate, and based on current allocations Tasmania would only receive one additional clinic.
He says he’s written to the Federal Government to request additional clinics be set up in Sorell, Kingston, Bridgewater, and Burnie.
There’s currently four clinics in Tasmania, two in Hobart, one in Launceston and one in Devonport jointly funded by State and Federal Governments and Mr Barnett says they’re showing promising indicators, diverting tens of thousands of patients from hospital emergency departments.
A fifth clinic in Newstead in Launceston is being wholly funded by the State Government.
Mr Barnett says he’s been putting the case to the Feds for months for funding for at least five additional clinics in Tasmania.
