Nurse-only clinics just another band-aid
Spending taxpayer funds on a nurse-led clinic in the Brisbane CBD makes no sense when regional communities are crying out for healthcare access.
Nurse-led walk-in health clinics have been proven to be inefficient in other jurisdictions and are not the best use of precious health dollars, AMA Queensland President Dr Nick Yim said today.
The Queensland Government has allocated $46 million for four clinics as part of its Women’s and Girls’ Health Strategy, with the first to open in Adelaide St, Brisbane, this September.
“AMA Queensland welcomes any investment in primary care but a nurse-only clinic in the Brisbane CBD does not make sense when so much of regional Queensland is struggling with access to health services,” Dr Yim said.
“The Brisbane CBD is already well serviced by GP clinics and hospitals. This funding would go so much further if it was used to employ nurses and allied health workers in GP clinics across the state, and in recruiting, training and retaining our local workforce.
“We have a workforce crisis and the staff for these nurse-led clinics will inevitably be poached from existing services, making it harder for them to provide continuity of care to patients.
“Clinics without doctors have been consistently shown to be more expensive, provide lower-quality care and fragment patient care compared to doctors’ practices.
“In the ACT, each visit to a nurse-led clinic costs taxpayers almost $200 compared to $40 for a GP visit, and that is without knowing how many patients were redirected to EDs.
“Instead of throwing money at clinics without doctors, satellite ‘hospitals’ without hospital beds and urgent care clinics that cannot find enough staff to open outside regular business hours, the state and federal governments should be investing in general practice.
“GPs keep people well and healthy and out of hospital. Band-aid fixes like nurse-only clinics, satellite hospitals and pharmacy prescribing will only lead to more pressure on our hospital emergency departments.
“All levels of government must invest in primary care models that we know work, not models we know don’t.”
Background
- Emails released under Freedom of Information laws in June 2024 showed the cost-per-service at the ACT nurse-led walk-in centres was approximately $194. The number of walk-in patients redirected to EDs has not been measured since October 2022.
- In the US, an examination of cost data for the South Mississippi system’s accountable care organisation (ACO) found care provided by non-physician providers was more expensive than that by doctors. Patients who see a non-doctor as their primary healthcare provider were more likely to present at emergency departments.
