Geraldton Medicare Urgent Care Clinic opens its doors to locals for urgent, non-life threatening conditions

Mid West residents needing urgent care for non-life threatening conditions, injuries and illnesses will now be able to walk into Geraldton’s newly opened Urgent Care Clinic. The long-awaited clinic opened its doors on Thursday to members of the community needing immediate medical attention, located at 233 Lester Avenue and open from 8am to 10pm seven days a week. Part of a $644 million Federal Government election promise last year to deliver 50 new urgent care clinics across Australia, the Geraldton facility is the 14th to open in WA and the third in regional WA after Bunbury and Broome. Currently, the clinic is being run out of the Panaceum medical building, before it will move into the building next door once construction is finished in the second half of the year. The clinic is walk-in, not requiring patients to make an appointment, with all services bulk billed. Dr Murray James-Wallace, Panaceum managing associate and director of Geraldton Medical Group, said the clinic was staffed by highly-trained nurses and doctors. Dr James-Wallace said the clinic was equipped to treat “high-flow presentations” that needed urgent attention but were not life threatening — such as cuts, viral infections, minor injuries and simple procedures. “I’m really pleased to see the Geraldton Medicare Urgent Care Clinic now open,” he said. “It’s been a long time coming, and the focus is on delivering timely, high-quality urgent care in a setting that’s sustainable for both patients and clinicians.” It is expected the new care clinic will ease pressure on Geraldton Regional Hospital’s emergency department, which recorded a 50 per cent average of semi-urgent and non-urgent cases over 2024-25. Mark Butler, Federal Minister for Health and Aging, Disability and NDIS, said Geraldton’s urgent care clinic would join the network of 13 Medicare urgent care clinics across WA. “We are pleased to see this critical service opened for the people of Geraldton,” he said. Mr Butler said the urgent care clinics had proved successful, with more than 277,9000 cases having been presented to other WA clinics since the first one was opened in 2023. Dr James-Wallace said the clinic had been established with the needs of the Mid West community in mind, as they would have access to efficient care when they needed it quickly, without it being an emergency. “The clinic will improve access to urgent care locally and help reduce pressure on the hospital emergency department, while complementing existing general practice services,” he said. “We have strong relationships with Geraldton Regional Hospital and St John of God Hospital, and we’re excited to see how we can work together to streamline patients’ experiences.” The Geraldton urgent care clinic was expecting to see an addition of onsite radiology services in the second half of the year, following strong interest. Dr James-Wallace said the service was not for chronic care and wanted to encourage Mid West community members to continue valuing their relationship with their GP, and call triple-0 in an emergency. “We’re really grateful for the strong local support and we’re focused on making this a dependable service for Geraldton,” he said.