Two medical clinics offering seven day a week bulked billed treatment for urgent conditions, that are aimed at providing an alternative to people going to hospital emergency departments, will operate in Palmerston and Alice Springs from next month, federal Health and Aged Care Minister Mark Butler has said.

In a statement Mr Butler said the so-called Medicare urgent care clinics will operate at the Palmerston GP Super Clinic from October 1, and Northside shopping complex in Alice Springs from November 1. The Alice Springs clinic will be operated by the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress.

Both clinics will be open ‘extended hours’ seven days a week, and offer walk-in treatment that is bulk-billed for “urgent” conditions, he said. Patients can also use imaging and pathology services.

Mr Butler said the aim was to reduce the number of people visiting Alice Springs, Royal Darwin, and Palmerston hospitals, allowing their medical staff to focus more on higher-priority emergencies, saying more than half of people who went to NT emergency departments in 2021–22 were for non-urgent or semi-urgent care.

“The Palmerston and Alice Springs Medicare UCC will make a big difference to local patients who will be able to walk in during extended hours and receive convenient, high-quality care from a nurse or a doctor,” Mr Butler said.

“The clinics will ensure families in the Northern Territory can access bulk billed health care without having to wait in a hospital emergency department. This is just another way the Government is strengthening Medicare and making it easier to see a doctor.”

A seventh code yellow in six months was called Darwin and Palmerston hospitals earlier this month, because of an inability to cope with the number of patients.

In the June Budget Estimates Chief Minister and Health Minister Natasha Fyles said the hospitals had nine code yellows in the 2022-23 financial year.

Data provided by the former Public Employment Commissioner Vicki Telfer in her quarterly report showed NT Health went from 7955 full-time equivalent health workers in June 2022 to 7373 in March this year.