The explosion in the popularity of telehealth services since the Covid pandemic has helped transform the way many grey nomads access healthcare when on the road … and that’s not likely to change any time soon.
Indeed, the Federal Government recently announced a further $5 million worth of research into how telehealth can be used most effectively and appropriately.
Six research projects – from Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and the ACT – will each receive close to $1 million to develop a solid evidence-base that can inform future health policy on telehealth, while supporting health practitioners and service providers to enhance their current telehealth services.
The Minister for Health and Aged Care, Mark Butler, said the Government was committed to unlocking telehealth’s potential.
“The expansion of telehealth services, during the early days of Covid, has been described as ‘10 years of change in 10 days’ and that is not an exaggeration,” he said. “Telehealth has become a permanent feature of the health system today, as both patients and providers enjoy its convenience and potential to remove the tyranny of distance that has sometimes made health service delivery so challenging for rural and remote Australia, in particular.”
And that’s all been a huge boon to grey nomads as they seek medical advice, and to fill prescriptions, while travelling in remote country.
One of the leading national telehealth medical services, Medmate, says it has provided more than 200,000 consultations to every postcode in the country, and approximately 20- 30% of patients it sees online are travelling.
“These include international travellers, domestic tourists and grey nomads,” said Cassandra O’Connor, Medmate’s Director of Pharmacy. “It’s very common for our doctors to help grey nomads that are in regional Australia and away from their regular doctor.”
Ms O’Connor says Medmate’s consultations are generally conducted over the phone, making them perfect for grey nomads.
“With Medmate you can talk to a doctor by telephone within the hour and have electronic prescriptions sent to your phone by SMS instantly,” she said. “You can use electronic prescriptions to have any medication dispensed from any pharmacy in Australia … if you can’t get to a pharmacy, Medmate can organise medication delivery directly to you, the same day in most locations.”
Consultation options include express consults for common medical conditions such as urinary tract infections; sore throats; chest, sinus and dental infections; online prescriptions and medical certificates.
And the continued advances in technology which help telehealth doctors collect health metrics from patients indicate the telehealth revolution is only just getting started.
“Smart phones and wearable devices are now able to record biometrics such as blood pressure, heart rate and rhythm, blood oxygen levels and body temperature,” said Ms O’Connor. “While not quite to the level of a virtual ward which would indicate hospital-level care, wearable health data is valuable for both personal health management and clinical purposes, as it provides continuous, real-time insights into various aspects of an individual’s health and wellbeing.”
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I live in Victoria & I have serious heart condition.
My heart specialist prescribed the wrong medication & while I was away on a trip to SA I became seriously ill.
I booked two telehealth appointments with my regular GP.
The first one I waited one & a half hours for the phone to ring, the next one didn’t ring at all.
I ended up going to Kingston SE hospital where they didn’t want to know me because I was a Victorian.