ACC’s proposed changes to the Urgent Care clinic (after-hours) contract

“ACC’s proposed changes will result in more patients having to attend EDs around the country to get urgent, unscheduled medical care. This will reduce access to care for vulnerable patients such as children, the elderly and those with complex or long term medical conditions” says AMCA.

AMCA, the Accident & Medical Clinic Association, represents the majority of urgent care (after hours, accident and urgent injury) clinics in New Zealand.

Around 2.5 million New Zealanders visit urgent care clinics (UCCs) each year for urgent, no-appointment consultations and for comparison around 1 million people visit hospital emergency departments each year. “UCCs have a critical role in ensuring people can access acute and unscheduled care” says AMCA president Dr Neil Beumelburg. “UCCs support General Practices when they are closed and assist with reducing the demand on our Emergency Departments (EDs) nationwide.”

A significant amount of public funding to support lower co-payments and assist access for patients to urgent care clinics is currently provided by ACC by way of its contract with UCCs.

ACC has recently (Feb 2023) proposed a number of changes to the current UCC contract which they plan to roll out on 1st July 2023.
“The changes proposed by ACC were announced with a stated intent of improving equity and access for patients and to acknowledge the Urgent Care (UC) sector’s concerns regarding financial and workforce sustainability”, says AMCA Secretary Dr Alistair Sullivan. “However, our analysis of the changes proposed by ACC shows the actual effects would be:

• Less access for patients to affordable after-hours care and less access to urgent treatment for injuries across the country. The changes will disproportionately affect high needs patients such as children and those with complex health needs especially long term conditions.

• An immediate reduction in the Urgent Care/After Hours industry’s financial sustainability leading to more urgent care clinics closing and giving up their after-hours contracts.

The above effects will mean many more patients will have to present to Emergency Departments around the country when they cannot access timely urgent care for accidents and illness and this will occur at a time when EDs are already massively under pressure” he says.

“What is astonishing is that the actual effects of the proposed changes are completely the opposite of what ACC’s stated intentions were when introducing the changes” says Dr Beumelburg.

AMCA is urging ACC to rethink and reverse the changes proposed. “We urge ACC to engage effectively in constructive dialogue with the UC Sector around real change to improve access, equity for patients and the long term sustainability of the sector”, he says.