Virtual healthcare services may improve healthcare access for regional communities, but a health policy expert says it would only work if it was part of a long-term strategy. Photo: Vitaly Gariev.
There has been a rapid increase in the use of ‘virtual’ health care in the Riverina, but one expert is concerned government is favouring this “cheap option” and not doing enough to place doctors in rural towns.
At a recent forum in Wagga, Healthdirect Australia, a 24-hour free virtual health service, was joined by nearly 100 Local Health Advisory Committee (LHAC) members from across the region to promote the benefits of telehealth – being treated by professionals remotely by phone or through the internet.
Between 13 March, 2020 and 31 July, 2022, 118.2 million telehealth services were delivered to 18 million patients across Australia.
Former CEO of rural advocacy group Healthy Communities Foundation Mark Burdack thinks telehealth is a great tool to improve access to healthcare in remote communities, but only if it’s part of a long-term strategy.
“But we’ve seen time and time again that it’s simply a way of providing a cheap option to meet the needs of rural communities that would never be accepted in the cities,” he said.
“A stethoscope can’t cure heart disease. All it can do, like telehealth, is provide a mechanism to help somebody who needs care.”
Healthdirect Head of Government Relations and Stakeholder Engagement Jerry Bacich said familiarity and trust in virtual care services were two key components.
“As people become more familiar with Healthdirect and see how it works in real situations, their confidence grows,” he said.
“That trust helps people feel more comfortable using the service when they need it.”
Mr Burdack agrees, but drew comparisons between telehealth services and bank call centres.
He cautioned the community against accepting a “temporary solution” to the workforce crisis disproportionately impacting regional Australia.
The poor state of rural healthcare in NSW has been the subject of numerous inquiries over the past decade, with reliance on temporary doctors (locums) being a major point of contention.
“If we embrace this as a solution, then the efforts to get doctors into rural towns will simply dissipate,” he said.
“We’re going to continue to see more and more services drifting to the cities, and this will become the only way we access health care in rural communities.”
Mr Burdack said billions of dollars invested in rural medical programs had not worked for 20 years. He said setting up a call centre that might become competition to GPs in rural areas was not the answer.
“The government [is] convinced that these services are cheaper, but in the long run, it doesn’t deliver better health outcomes and it’s going to be more expensive,” he said.
“We need to make sure that whatever model we adopt is putting the patient at the centre of the care, not the technology.
“It’s not delivering better health care unless it’s based in a real knowledge and understanding of those communities, and it’s not going to deliver health equity for all Australians.”
