Report: ACN calls for greater nurse UCC program recognition

The Australian College of Nursing (ACN) says an interim evaluation report by the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care of Medicare Urgent Care Clinics (Medicare UCCs) includes promising evidence that the clinics achieve their desired objective but is also calling for greater recognition of the integral role of nursing staff to the efficient operation of these clinics. The desired objective of Medicare UCCs is to provide care for illnesses and injuries that are urgent, but not life-threatening, and to reduce expensive visits to hospital EDs.

“Patients are clearly benefiting from the UCC program,” ACN CEO Adjunct Professor Kathryn Zeitz FACN said. “The evaluation supports what nurses already know: collaborative, community-based, multidisciplinary care models can effectively reduce pressure on our overstretched hospital system while improving patient access to timely treatment.”

In the report, 75 clinics operating in the first 15 months of the program are evaluated against nine ‘measures of success’. The nine measures are:

1. timely treatment;
2. safe and quality treatment;
3. coordinated care;
4. patient and carer experience;
5. experience for providers at Medicare UCCs, partner hospital EDs and local GP practices;
6. ED presentations at partner hospitals;
7. consumer behaviour;
8. coordinated care within the health ecosystem; and
9. cost effectiveness.

“Medicare UCCs employ an average of four full-time equivalent nursing staff per clinic,” Zeitz said. “Nursing staff are integral to the efficient operation of these clinics, yet the report focuses predominantly on challenges related to GP recruitment.” While acknowledging the difficulties in recruiting GPs, particularly in regional areas, Zeitz said “we must recognise that nurses are the backbone of these clinics”.

Key findings from the report include that 334,000 ED presentations have been prevented by the clinics each year; wait times were an average of 14.5 minutes long — compared with between 24 and 31 minutes for comparable ED wait times; and that in the vast majority of cases, patients presenting to the clinics did so with conditions that can be appropriately managed there.

“The report identifies opportunities for more flexible workforce models, including interdisciplinary care, which we strongly support,” Zeitz said. “But where there are difficulties recruiting GPs for UCCs, we would urge consideration be given to recruiting from our highly skilled and experienced nursing workforce.” Zeitz points to the ACT’s nurse-led Walk-in Centres as a case in point.

“Advanced practice nurses and nurse practitioners can play an expanded role in urgent care settings, helping to address workforce shortages while maintaining high-quality care,” Zeitz said. “We will call on the next government to further invest in nursing workforce development as this program expands and, more broadly, commit to implementing blended funding models that support nurses to their full scope of practice.”

The interim report warned that there is significant uncertainty around its evaluation of the costing of the service — though it does estimate that UCCs are saving $368 per presentation in reduced ED visits. “As we await the next phases of evaluation, ACN will continue to support the Department of Health and Aged Care and other stakeholders to strengthen this important program and ensure nurses’ expertise is fully utilised in addressing Australia’s urgent care needs,” Zeitz said.

Two further reports will be issued at the end of 2025 and in 2026. You can read this ‘interim evaluation report 1’ here, via the Department of Health and Aged Care website.

Image credit: iStock.com/FatCamera