Hunter patients will be able to use the bulk-billed GP Access After Hours clinic at the Mater Hospital from Monday after the federal government made good on a promise to restore full funding to the service.
Newcastle MP Sharon Claydon told a media conference at the Mater on Sunday that the clinic's reopening was the first step in restoring full GP Access hours at Belmont Hospital, Westlakes Community Health Centre at Toronto, Maitland Hospital and John Hunter Hospital.
The Mater clinic has been closed for almost 18 months and the other clinics operating with reduced hours after the then NSW and federal Coalition governments failed to reach a funding agreement for the service in late 2021.
Labor committed in the October budget to spending $28.7 million over six years to restore the popular service, which is staffed by general practitioners and nurses outside normal practice hours to meet the needs of patients and take pressure off hospital emergency wards.
The Mater clinic will open from 6 to 10pm on weekdays, 1 to 8pm on Saturdays and 9am to 4pm on Sundays.
The service, run by not-for-profit organisation Hunter Primary Care, is the only one of its type in Australia, but Ms Claydon said the government would like to see the model "rolled out across the country".
GP Access founder Dr Annette Carruthers said an "awful" GP shortage in the Hunter had placed doctors under increasing pressure.
She said it "took a lot of cajoling ... for those people to come back" to GP Access.
"I want to acknowledge the efforts of all the GPs, nurses and admin staff who are also going to step up and increase their hours," she said.
"A lot of these people work full-time during the week then turn up at night and on weekends to support our community in this service."
Dr Carruthers said it would be "wonderful" for the Mater emergency department to "have some support now".
Hunter Primary Care chief operating officer Keith Drinkwater said the Mater after-hours clinic would take 14,000 consultations a year.
"When fully operational across five clinics we'll deliver 55,000 appointments a year," Mr Drinkwater said.
"Our call centre will handle something like 70,000 or 80,000 calls a year. Twenty per cent of those people get stay-at-home advice, so that's really powerful hospital avoidance."
Wallsend state MP Sonia Hornery said ED waiting times at the John Hunter and Mater were "too long".
"With the reopening of the GP Access ... we'll alleviate some of the problems that we're having," she said.
"We still have work to do on reducing waiting times at our emergency departments, but this will really help."
