Albany can't afford to lose its after-hours GP service

MR RICK WILSON MP
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR O’CONNOR

24th April 2026

Albany Can’t Afford to Lose Its After‑Hours GP Service

Most people don’t give much thought to after‑hours health care until they need it.

On a weekend or a public holiday, the availability of an after-hours GP service can provide welcome peace of mind for those unforeseen accidents and illnesses that are not a desperate emergency.

For Albany and the wider Great Southern, the Albany GP After Hours Collaborative, co-located at the Albany Health Campus, has provided that service.

But now, that service is at risk.

The Commonwealth funding stream that supports the Albany GP After Hours Collaborative is slated to end on 30 June 2026. And with no alternative funding mechanism in the pipeline, the residents of Albany and surrounds will be left high and dry, without a dedicated after‑hours GP service.

This ‘Collaborative’ has been operating for many years. It is supported by around 90 per cent of Albany’s GP practices, opening on weekends and public holidays when your regular GP is closed.

Importantly, it provides medical care with no out‑of‑pocket costs for patients, offering a safe, appropriate option for people who don’t feel they need an emergency department presentation but can’t wait until Monday morning.

In 2025 alone, more than 2,300 patients were treated through the After Hours GP service, with 97 per cent managed in-house, without needing referral for emergency department (ED) care.

In real terms, that means thousands of people avoided long ED wait times, and hospital staff were able to focus on genuine emergencies.

And all of this is delivered for less than $500,000 a year.

In health system terms, that is an extremely modest investment for a service that directly reduces emergency department congestion and hospital workload.

Albany does not have the luxury of easy access to metropolitan health services. But we do have  an ageing population, significant aged‑care demand, large numbers of people accessing disability and community services, and residents travelling from surrounding small towns and communities for health care.

When an after‑hours GP service disappears, there is nowhere else for people to go.

When that happens, the emergency department becomes the default- not because it’s appropriate, but because it’s the only option.

Anyone who has spent time at the Albany Health Campus knows how the hard staff are already working, and Winter’s maladies place extra pressure on our hospitals every year.

Removing a proven service that diverts non‑urgent cases away from emergency care just as winter demand ramps up defies common sense.

At the same time, the Albanese Labor Government is rolling out Medicare Urgent Care Clinics across Australia. These clinics are designed to provide bulk‑billed urgent care and keep people out of hospital emergency departments - precisely what Albany’s After Hours GP Collaborative already does.

Yet Albany and the wider Great Southern have not been included in this rollout.

Across Western Australia, the majority of new Urgent Care Clinics are being established in metropolitan Perth, with only a handful in regional centres such as Bunbury, Broome and Geraldton.

There are none planned for the City of Albany nor anywhere else in my vast electorate of O’Connor. Yet again Labor is overlooking the needs of the regions.

Ironically new, higher‑cost clinics are being created elsewhere, mostly in the Perth metropolitan area, while an existing, lower‑cost and highly effective regional service is being withdrawn right here on our doorstep without replacement.

This is not about politics. It is about practical health care for regional communities.

Albany already has a model that works. It is collaborative, locally supported, cost‑effective and tailored to the needs of our regional population. Pulling funding without a transition plan risks creating a gap that will be felt by families, older residents, hospital staff and patients alike.

The solution does not need to be complicated. I’ve already reached out to the federal Health Minister, Labor’s Mark Butler, to ask whether funding could be extended under the existing Commonwealth arrangements, or whether transitional funding could be provided whilst an alternative like a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic be considered and established here in Albany?

Regional communities should not be left worse off because they are not in the metropolitan spotlight. Albany deserves equitable access to after‑hours GP care - and the loss of this service is something our community simply cannot afford.

Media contact:
Reuben Keyser
Communications and Community Engagement Adviser
[email protected] 
(08) 9842 2777
0455 125 035