A new free urgent care clinic is set to open in Hobart’s northern suburbs.
Pulse can reveal the federal government is planning to set up a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic in the Glenorchy-Derwent Park area.
The clinic will be aimed at easing pressure on the Royal Hobart Hospital, where around 32% of emergency presentations in 2024-25 were for semi-urgent or non-urgent conditions.
A tender process led by Primary Health Tasmania will soon get underway to find a provider to run the clinic, which will operate seven days a week with extended hours.
The new site will replace one of the existing Medicare Urgent Care Clinics in Hobart, with a separate tender to consolidate the central Hobart clinic into a single location.
Health Minister Mark Butler said the clinic would better serve people in the area.
“The Glenorchy-Derwent Park Medicare Urgent Care Clinic will better service the Northern Hobart community with care closer to home,” Butler told Pulse.
There are now 136 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics operating across Australia, with more than three million presentations since the first sites opened in June 2023.
Tasmania’s eight existing clinics have handled more than 176,000 presentations.
More than one in four of those visits happened on weekends, and one in three weekday visits were after 5pm.
Over one in four visits treated children under 15.
Assistant Minister Rebecca White said the clinics had proven popular with Tasmanians and the proposed new northern suburbs clinic would add to the success.
“With so many young families living in the northern suburbs, I’m sure this new clinic will provide peace of mind for caregivers who will now have a close and free option for urgent health care when they need it,” White told Pulse.
Senator Carol Brown said locals had been pushing for the service.
“People in the northern suburbs have made it very clear that this service is badly needed and would make a real difference for families, older Tasmanians and people who struggle to access urgent care,” Brown said.
“Community members have told me this clinic would help take pressure off the Royal Hobart Hospital and ambulance services, while giving people peace of mind knowing they can access free urgent care closer to home.”
