Western Australia has gone live today with its GP urgent care clinic network project, which will see general practices in Perth and the south west offer appointments from 8am to 8pm, seven days a week, to take the pressure off emergency departments.

The 18-month pilot, which involves 125 practices, is being backed by an advertising campaign with the tagline “Not all urgencies are emergencies” running on television, outdoor, radio and digital channels encouraging people with urgent medical conditions that are not an emergency to attend an urgent care clinic instead of an ED.