As Westmead Hospital’s emergency department continues to experience drawn-out waiting times, a new local Urgent Care Clinic (UCC) will look to help ease the pressure.
Patients with urgent but non-life-threatening conditions now have the option to skip a visit to the emergency department, with the Westmead UCC officially opening last Friday.
Located in the Wentworthville Medical and Dental Centre, the UCC will be open seven days a week, from 8am to 8pm.
The clinic is a part of a pledge made by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese ahead of last year’s Federal Election, where he promised to deliver 50 GP-led Medicare Urgent Care Clinics across the country if elected.
Speaking at the launch, Federal Member for Parramatta Andrew Charlton said the clinic will make a difference for all the families who have been waiting for five or six hours in Westmead Hospital’s emergency department.
“It’s going to take pressure off Westmead, already more than two thirds of patients at Westmead Hospital are waiting more than four hours,” he said.
“A third of those patients are non-life threatening or non-urgent.
“This is great news for local families, people with kids, everybody who has an urgent need but it’s not a life threatening illness will be able to be seen much more quickly, much more reasonably at a facility like this.”
The Bureau of Health Information shows that from the period of January to March, only 40.1 per cent of patients started their treatment on time in the Westmead emergency department. That’s a drop of 6.3 per cent compared to the same quarter last year.
“It’s unacceptable for patients in one of the country’s most advanced health precincts to have to wait over four hours while hard-working doctors, nurses and hospital staff struggle with increasing pressures,” Charlton said.
“Now, if your child has a fever or you fall and injure yourself out of hours, you can go straight to the Urgent Care Clinic instead of attending Westmead Hospital’s emergency department.”
The clinic is expected to help approximately 3,500 patients per year access urgent healthcare.
Dr Layla Yasmeen, who works at the Westmead UCC, said the response to the clinic has been very good from locals so far.
“Our patients who walk in with some injuries, they actually want us to treat them because they want to avoid that waiting time, and when we say ‘yes, we can’, they are very happy,” she told Parra News.
“We take care of their injury or whatever problem is that they have and then they are out of here within one to two hours.”
The clinic will provide fully bulk-billed urgent healthcare without an appointment, with a team of staff on-site who are equipped to deal with everything from minor fractures and sprains, to non-venomous bites and mild burns.
To find out more information, visit http://www.wentworthvillemedical.com.au/urgent-care
Ellie Busby is a news reporter for Western Sydney Publishing Group. A graduate of the University of Hertfordshire and Western Sydney University, she is a journalism Major. Ellie has worked with Universal Media, The Cova Project and for a range of other organisations. In 2024, Ellie was named Young Writer of the Year at the Mumbrella Publish Awards.