ACT Labor’s election commitment to build five new walk-in health centres will be at an expense to the “deep-seated issues” at Canberra Hospital, say the Canberra Liberals.
Labor, if re-elected, announced they will be five new, free walk-in health centres in South Tuggeranong, West Belconnen, Inner South, Molonglo and North Gungahlin. A cost for the project has not been disclosed
ACT Labor leader Andrew Barr says the service will complement the existing nurse-led Walk-in Centres, keeping Canberrans out of hospital and taking pressure off our emergency departments.
But the Canberra Liberals describe Labor’s announcement as completely giving up on fixing deep seated issues at the Canberra Hospital.
“Today’s uncosted and unfunded announcement is just the same old Labor offering the same thing they did in 2016,” a Liberal spokesperson says.
“We already have free and bulk-billed primary health care in many of these locations.
“Canberrans want to see a reduction in elective surgery, emergency department and specialist wait times.”
A visit to a walk-in centre costs almost five times the price than a bulk billed trip to the GP, at $188 per consultation compared to $38 for a GP, the Liberal spokesperson says.
Who can be trusted?
In a world of spin and confusion, there’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in Canberra.
If you trust our work online and want to enforce the power of independent voices, I invite you to make a small contribution.
Every dollar of support is invested back into our journalism to help keep citynews.com.au strong and free.
Thank you,
Ian Meikle, editor
Leave a Reply