Urgent Care Services

Urgent care is medical attention that is required within 2-12 hours for an illness or injury that is not life-threatening, such as sprains, bone fractures and dislocations, insect bites, rashes, gastrointestinal illness, urinary tract infections, sexually transmitted infections, minor cuts and abrasions, minor ear and eye problems, and minor burns.

Urgent care is not a replacement for health and medical services that are managed in a regular general practice by a doctor such as general screening and health checks, vaccinations and prescriptions, mental health advice, family planning, referrals for tests, scans or specialist care, chronic disease management or preventive health procedures such as cervical screening tests.

Urgent Care Services were selected through an open tender process. Local general practices were required to demonstrate their ability to meet the service specifications, including local connection to the health services. Whilst some deliver the Urgent Care Service onsite at their existing clinic, others have set up a separate satellite site in order to have sufficient rooms, patient flows for infection prevention and patient amenities.

The NSW Government and the Australian Government are both funding the delivery of separate services within NSW which provide urgent care. The NSW Government is delivering a range of in-person and virtual Urgent Care Services which you can access by calling Healthdirect on 1800 022 222.

The Australian Government is delivering Medicare Urgent Care Clinics which people can walk in to and wait to be seen. More information about NSW Government funded Urgent Care Services is available at: https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Hospitals/Pages/urgent-care-services.aspx

More information about Medicare Urgent Care Clinics is available at: https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/medicare-urgent-care-clinics

Urgent Care Services are generally open from 8am to 8pm every day of the week, including on public holidays. Some virtual Urgent Care Services are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The Healthdirect helpline operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. By calling Healthdirect on 1800 022 222 to access Urgent Care Services, people can be connected with an appropriate, available service in their location

It is free for anyone to call Healthdirect on 1800 022 222 and receive information, advice or be connected with a health care service, including an Urgent Care Service. Treatment through an Urgent Care Service is free for people with a Medicare card and for community-based asylum seekers.

Some in-person Urgent Care Services also provide free x-ray and pathology (e.g. blood or urine test) services.

The Urgent Care System is intended to complement the role of primary care providers, by improving access to urgent care in appropriate community and virtual settings. Primary care providers are the coordinators of their patients’ healthcare, and Urgent Care Services support this by providing short-term episodic care for urgent illnesses or injuries, with referral of patients back to their primary care provider for ongoing care and care navigation.

For people who have a regular General Practitioner (GP) or are a MyMedicare patient registered with a particular General Practice, information about their use of an Urgent Care Service and the treatment they received can be securely provided to their GP to ensure any follow-up care required can be provided.

A range of in-language resources are being developed to support communication about Urgent Care Services with diverse communities. As these become available, they can be found at: https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Hospitals/Pages/urgent-care-translations.aspx

Further information about Urgent Care Services being delivered by NSW Health is available at: https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Hospitals/Pages/urgent-care-services.aspx

Further information about Australian Government-funded Medicare Urgent Care Clinics being delivered in local communities is available at: https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/medicare-urgent-care-clinics