People who need urgent emergency care in the Grampians will no longer have to pay out-of-pocket medical costs.
Grampians Health has announced a change to its funding models that will eliminate the $50 surcharge for emergency patients at Stawell, 230 kilometres north-west of Melbourne.
In recent months, people were being charged hundreds of dollars for after-hours care in the town of 6,000 people.
Urgent Care centres in Victoria operated on a different funding model to emergency departments and so attracted an out of pocket fee for patients.
Grampians Health chief strategy and regions officer Rob Grenfell said the fee varied depending on the treatment required.
"This means now with Stawell joining the Grampians Health group of hospitals, it has allowed us to bring in line the emergency services for the region," he said.
The hospital at Stawell has 4,000 patient admissions each year, which averages to about 15 presentations daily.
That figure is expected to increase because of the ageing population.
"That means the co-payment for after-hours services is no more, which increases the accessibility of these services to the general population," Dr Grenfell said.
Service for emergencies only
Dr Grenfell stressed that the Urgent Care service was intended for medical emergencies and people should continue seeing their regular GP or pharmacist when possible to avoid overwhelming an already stretched system.
"The success of this service for treating emergencies relied on the general public playing their part as well ... if it's not urgent, [they] should really consider seeing [their] GP."
The Urgent Care centre will be staffed by GPs but Dr Grenfell said serious, acute emergencies would still need to be transferred to larger centres such as the emergency department at Ballarat hospital.
Anyone who requires general practice services will not be affected by the change.
