Geelong to get Primary Priority Care Centre

GEELONG will get one of the final 10 Primary Priority Care Centres (PPCCs) being rolled out across Victoria.

Geelong MP Christine Couzens announced this week a PPCC would be established in Geelong to provide people with faster care for urgent but non-critical conditions while freeing up important hospital resources for patients with more serious needs.

The PPCC will be set up here in partnership with Barwon Health at University Hospital Geelong.

Staffed with both GPs and nurses, the centres can treat patients on a pre-booked or walk-up basis and are equipped to handle a range of conditions such as mild infections, fractures and burns, in addition to diagnostic services including pathology and medical imaging.

Supported by $70.8 million in state government funding, the service is free to all Victorians – with or without a Medicare card – and will operate for expanded opening hours, seven days a week and up to 16 hours a day.

The sites for each of the 25 centres were selected following careful consideration of population, community needs and emergency department demand.

“These centres will help people in Geelong help take pressure off our local EDs and give people another option to receive the best possible care,” Ms Couzens said.

The 10 new locations – as well as Geelong, PPCCs will be now be in locations including Maroondah, Goulburn Valley, Footscray, Mildura and Warragul – add to 15 sites already previously announced in areas such as Frankston, Bendigo, Box Hill, Werribee and Dandenong.

The first PPCC, in Epping, opened earlier this month.

Labor says the 25 new PPCCs are part of a range of initiatives to take pressure off busy emergency departments in the state’s hospitals, including expanding the Virtual ED and Better at Home Programs, and 30 state-funded GP respiratory clinics.

“Expanding primary care options is critical to giving Victorians greater access to affordable healthcare and this free service is just one of the ways we’re doing that,” Minister for Health Mary-Anne Thomas said.

“These centres progressively opening across the state – both in the cities and our growing regional centres – will provide enormous relief to our EDs and free up critical resources for those who need it most.”

The PPCCs are similar to but not the same as the 50 federally-funded bulk-billed urgent care clinics, one of which will be built in Geelong following an election pledge from Corio Labor federal member Richard Marles and Corangamite Labor federal member Libby Coker in April.