Health minister Tanya Plibersek toured the region on Friday, stopping off at Tweed Heads for the opening of the $7.75 million Tweed Super Clinic and the North Coast NSW Medicare Local’s new regional office in Tweed Heads.
Ms Plibersek said the new Super Clinic is providing residents with better access to doctors and other health professionals under one roof.
‘The clinic brings together GPs, nurses, visiting medical specialists, allied health professionals and other healthcare services in a single location to work as a team providing patients with the best possible care,’ Ms Plibersek said.
‘The clinic also offers placements to health students to help boost the Tweed’s health workforce.’
Ms Elliot said the Tweed Health for Everyone Super Clinic, as it is known would work closely with community leaders, aged care facilities and existing healthcare services to ensure health needs for local residents are met.
‘This clinic delivers on our 2010 election commitment to build a GP Superclinic for the Tweed region. It will provide important services that target the area’s key health priorities, including chronic disease management and preventive care,’ Ms Elliot said.
The Australian government contributed $7 million to establish the clinic, with a further $750,000 provided by the funding recipient.
It’s one of 60 Clinics approved and 50 either open, providing early services, or under construction as part of the federal government’s commitment to ‘bring health services closer to home, wherever Australians live’.
Tweed Health for Everyone Super Clinic is open from 7.30am to 7.30pm Monday to Friday, and on weekends from 8am to 1pm.
Ms Plibersek and Ms Elliot also attended the opening of the North Coast NSW Medicare Local’s new regional office in Tweed Heads.
The Medicare Local employs over 160 frontline health professionals from Port Macquarie to the Tweed – more than any other Medicare Local around Australia.
It provides services such as after hours care; mental health; cervical screening; and from August, the Medicare Local will provide GP services from homeless referral centres in conjunction with St Vincent de Paul and the Tweed Health for Everyone Super Clinic.
Ms Plibersek recently launched a Medicare Locals website to support healthcare in local communities around the nation.
The website, www.medicarelocals.gov.au, includes information about the health services being delivered by each Medicare Local, the health workers it employs, and some of the successes in their local areas.
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