Radio Interview- ABC North and West SA with Tom Mann

RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC North and West SA
MONDAY, 16 February 2026

SUBJECTS: Whyalla Urgent Care Clinic provider announcement.

TOM MANN: HOST The Federal Government have announced providers have been selected for a clinic planned for Whyalla. To speak more on this, Karen Grogan is with me, Labor Senator for South Australia Australia.

KAREN GROGAN: SENATOR FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA Good morning Tom.

TOM MANN: HOST Now, why are the Medicare urgent clinics important in your view?

KAREN GROGAN: SENATOR FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA Look, they're making a big difference across the country. We don't all have an injury or get sick in handy, useful doctor's hours. A lot of those ‘whoops’ injuries, as you call them, do happen on weekends, at night, early in the morning and this enables people to actually get a service there and then, fully bulk billed, and actually deal with it without having to go to an emergency department. We see the figures, that emergency presentations, over 50% of them are only semi-urgent and could easily be dealt with by a GP, but there's nowhere to go so people go to the hospital. That places huge pressure on our hospital system. So this is a double whammy, really. It's much more convenient for people to be able to go to a doctor's surgery and be treated there, but it also means there are less people in the ED, which means those people who need that urgent hospital care can get it quicker.

TOM MANN: HOST And so this next step for Whyalla of the decision on the providers, how busy have these clinics been in other parts of the state and potentially will be for Whyalla?

KAREN GROGAN: SENATOR FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA They've been a roaring success around the country. We've had huge numbers of people choosing to go there rather than the emergency department. So that's really good news across the system. I went to one myself. I managed to put a bread knife through my finger and it wouldn't stop bleeding. And it was a Sunday, I think about eight o'clock in the morning and I was able to go to the urgent care clinic near my house and they stitched it up, and I was in and out in an hour. It was excellent.

TOM MANN: HOST And in terms of, you know, for a while for the urgent care clinic, how many, you know, medical professionals, professionals, doctors will be there, will be needed to make sure it does, you know, work and operate in the way that it needs to in those off hours times.

KAREN GROGAN: SENATOR FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA So they're working through the finer details and what we've seen with other clinics, as they've opened up, they get to see a sense of what the sort of patient numbers are, what the peak times are, and they build the centre to suit that. So I would imagine it'll adjust a little as they settle [and] start to see the numbers are and what the need is and build from there, but there it's pitched open on the 20th of April this year and it'll be open seven days a week and the extended hours that we look to for urgent care clinics are 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday, and then 9am to 6pm on weekends and public holidays.

TOM MANN: HOST Karen Grogan is with me, Labor Senator for South Australia speaking about urgent care clinics and the plans that are moving forward for one in Whyalla. Now, of course, when we talk about medical staff, doctors, health professionals of all sorts, you know, we do often look at the stretch and the difficulty in attracting and retaining those doctors. Do you feel confident or, you know, are you confident that the retention of staff will be possible for that urgent care clinic while maintaining the other health services that are necessary for a medical ecosystem for Whyalla.

KAREN GROGAN: SENATOR FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA Yes, I am really confident. I think what we've seen - go back a few years, and things were pretty dire in the region in terms of health professionals - but we've seen that improve, which is great. And I think what we're seeing with the bulk billing moves that we made from the end of last year, we've seen a significant increase in the number of doctors' surgeries who are taking up the bulk billing incentive that the government has offered. And we've seen the numbers in South Australia for example, before the 1st of November last year, there were 88 services that were registered as bulk billing practises and that's now up to 177. And specifically, we've seen that number increase in the seat of grey. So we've now got 41 bulk billing doctors in that area, and that was only 18 before the 1st of November. So we're seeing a sort of a real tick up in doctors settling into these areas and offering the free services that the government then supports. So I think we're seeing a tick up. We're certainly training more doctors and training more nurses. That's been something we've worked on very hard since we came to government. And we're now seeing that training being provided in the regions as well because we often find nurses, doctors, they go to the city, they train. By the time they've finished their training, they've got their life quite settled and they don't move back. So moving those training services into the regions, it makes a huge difference to people actually staying in place when they're trained.

TOM MANN: HOST And so at this time, are there plans for any more of these in terms of a tool of relieving pressure on emergency departments and being this extra space for people to go, you know, when they are in need. Of course, there's eight others around the state, but many of those are in metro areas. Is there, you know, a view to increase these urgent care clinics?

KAREN GROGAN: SENATOR FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA I think there's a huge desire. We started off with a much smaller number and there was such a roaring success that we added more. As you say, we've got eight in South Australia. They are making a big difference. They're making our hospitals more efficient. They're making the wait times that people have when they've got an injury or an illness much less. So yes, they are really, successful. So yes, it is something that we would definitely be looking at. There are certainly those of us who are advocating very heavily for more.

TOM MANN: HOST Well, Senator, thank you very much for your time this morning.

KAREN GROGAN: SENATOR FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA Thank you so much. Good to speak with you, Tom, and stay cool out there. It's going to be a hot one.