Details remain scant on Tamworth's Medicare Critical Care Clinic, despite deadline for delivery just a year away

Tamworth was promised a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic by the Labor party ahead of the May federal election.

But local doctors are skeptical of the ability of the federal government to actually fulfil the promise by the due date.

A spokesperson for Minister for Health Mark Butler confirmed to the Leader Tamworth is "one of the priority areas announced for an urgent care clinic". The clinics will go online from the middle of next year, he said.

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The federal government has yet to develop estimates of the cost, staffing, or location of the clinic, and the spokesperson didn't answer a question by the Leader as to whether they remained confident about meeting the deadline.

Tamworth GP Ian Kamerman is skeptical of the health model.

"The question that they never seem to answer is, exactly where are they going to get these doctors from? There is a national shortage of GPs," he said.

"Are they going to pull doctors out of mainstream general practice and so consequently it'll be harder for people to see their own GP?

"Are they suddenly going to flood the market with overseas-trained doctors who are working under supervision?

"Are they going to pull junior doctors out of hospitals to serve it?

"Are they going to get emergency medicine specialists to run it?"

He said the late shifts and weekend duties the clinics would require wouldn't be attractive to doctors, and the less than $3 million allocated to each clinic would barely make ends meet.

"I suppose this comes down to the basic problem, which is politicians running healthcare, and deciding on solutions which are generally knee-jerk responses to fix a particular problem without thinking about the collateral effects..." he said.

"I just don't think it's been thought through at all."

Tamworth-based Hunter New England and Central Coast Public Health Network deputy chairperson Dr David Briggs said the federal health body hadn't yet got much information on it.