Roxon opens new $2.5m super clinic

HEALTH Minister Nicola Roxon (pictured) last week officially opened the Port Stephens GP Super Clinic on the NSW central coast.

It is the 11th super clinic to begin offering services since the rollout began in 2007. The $2.5 million clinic, operated by Rural and Metropolitan Health, will offer bulk-billed services for concession card holders, children younger than 16 and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

All MBS items for skin cancer checks, biopsies and procedures will also be bulk-billed. The clinic is expected to have a focus on preventive health and chronic disease management.

Medical students will also be invited to train at the clinic from January next year.

The opening of the Port Stephens GP Super Clinic follows the recent federal Budget announcement that an additional 23 dedicated super clinics will built as part of a $355.2 million expansion of the initiative. This takes the number of planned GP super clinics to 59.

The rollout of the super clinics has experienced some delays. In Mt Isa, the local division recently claimed its clinic could not be built for the $2.5 million allocated to the project (MO, 21 May). 

Ms Roxon, however, maintained the program remained on track. 

“We promised 31… as part of a five-year program. We have 11 that are providing services already into the community, but we have 17 that are under construction. So in a very short time we’ll have a large number of those [completed],” she said.

“It takes time if you want these services to properly fit community needs.”