Health Services on Phillip Island

Urgent Care Centre (UCC)

Phillip Island Health Hub

50 – 54 Church Street COWES 3922

Ph: 5951 2101

About UCC and Phillip Island Health Hub

The hub has two administrative bases: one for the UCC and one for the remaining services.  The UCC area is staffed 24 hours a day whilst the other area is staffed Monday to Friday from 8.45am to 5.15pm.

Staffing numbers vary from day to day depending on which services are provided on the day. The model of care is that all Allied Health, Specialist and Community services are provided from both the Cowes and Wonthaggi sites, delivered by Bass Coast staff who mobilise themselves, rather than their clients.

In 2021, the Hub can have up to 35 staff on site on any one day. This will continue to grow over the next few years. The addition of the community hospital will see staff numbers treble.

The Urgent Care Centre can see up to 60 patients a day in peak times with most presentations occurring between 9am and 7pm. The urgent care centre is available overnight and whilst many nights see extremely low numbers of presentations, in summer and at the peak of COVID, presentations overnight grew significantly. This is largely because there is a shortage of GP appointments available.

A number of new services, that had been previously only been provided from Wonthaggi, were introduced to the Hub, the most important being a significant number of Medical Specialists. These medical specialist services have grown over the years with the Hub now facilitating access to Cardiologists, Nephrologists, an Echo Clinic, Gastroenterologists, General Surgeons, Geriatricians, Gynaecologists, Haematologists, Orthapaedic Surgeons, and a Respiratory and Sleep specialist. The visiting Urologist is a private specialist, with appointments booked through their rooms only. 

These specialist services have greatly reduced travel time for Phillip Island community members, and over time as funding becomes available, more of these services will transition to Public Clinics which will mean there will be no cost to the patient.

Importantly, much of the equipment in the hub has been funded through the generosity of the Phillip Island community, with amazing advocacy and leadership from the Phillip Island Health Hub Auxiliary.

Specialists can see up to 40 patients a day; Allied Health up to 40.

All allied health and specialist services can be organised by phoning our Access team on 5671 3175 (Specialist Services require a valid/current GP Referral) or emailing access@basscoasthealth.org.au