Residents in Nowra officially now have access to extended hours, bulk-billed urgent care with the opening of the federally-funded Nowra Medicare Urgent Care Clinic.

Located at 107 Scenic Drive, the clinic is now open seven days a week and does not require appointments.

Patients can walk in for treatment of conditions that require urgent attention but are not life-threatening, including cuts, viral infections, or sprained ankles.

The new clinic is expected to ease pressure on the busy Shoalhaven Hospital, where around 51 per cent of presentations in 2024–25 were for semi-urgent or non-urgent conditions.

Data from the NSW Bureau of Health indicates that Medicare Urgent Care Clinics across the state are reducing demand on hospitals.

Semi-urgent emergency department presentations have dropped by 5.1 per cent, while non-urgent presentations have fallen by 8.7 per cent.

There are now 36 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics operating across NSW, part of the Federal Government’s commitment to ensure four out of five Australians live within a 20-minute drive of a local clinic.

Since the first clinic opened in June 2023, more than 2.6 million presentations have been recorded nationwide, including over 542,500 in New South Wales.

In the state, more than one in four patients were under 15 years old, over one in four visits occurred on weekends, and more than one in five were after-hours weekday visits.

The Nowra clinic has been commissioned by the South Eastern New South Wales Primary Health Network.

Minister Butler said, “We’re delivering on our promise to open more Medicare Urgent Care Clinics in New South Wales.

This new clinic will be open seven days a week, for extended hours and most importantly patients will be fully bulk billed.

This new data shows Medicare Urgent Care Clinics are taking the pressure off New South Wales hospitals and making sure patients can get the care they need when they need it.”

Gilmore MP Fiona Phillips added: “This clinic will make a real difference for locals by providing convenient, bulk billed urgent care right here in the heart of Nowra.

The opening of the clinic is a huge win for our community, taking the pressure off the emergency department at Shoalhaven Hospital.

In my community petition, and during the election campaign, hundreds of people told me how desperately this service was needed in Nowra.

I promised to deliver this important service for our community and I’m so thrilled it has been delivered, and the doors are now open.”

The Nowra Medicare Urgent Care Clinic represents a significant step in improving access to urgent healthcare in the region and supporting local hospitals.