IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Researchers from the University of Tasmania surveyed residents on King Island in Bass Strait in an attempt to establish the carbon emissions from their healthcare-related travel.

Isabelle Ellis, Professor of Nursing: Rural and Regional Practice Development, University of Tasmania, writes below that in one year, the islanders surveyed travelled more than 350,000 km for their health care generating more than 130 tonnes of carbon emissions.

The college last month won a contract to develop video consultation standards for the Federal Government’s $618.5 million telehealth rebate scheme.

It began meeting with vendors a fortnight ago on issues expected to affect the uptake and usefulness of video conferencing in medical consultations.

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has enlisted technology vendors to inform its development of telehealth standards for the Government.

The College has until October to introduce video consultation standards for the Government’s $618.5 million telehealth rebate scheme.

The Queensland Parliament’s Health and Community Services Committee is holding an inquiry into telehealth services in Queensland. It will consider implementation of telehealth, including the Rural Telehealth Service that was announced in February 2013 in the Blueprint for better healthcare in Queensland.

The six-month-old program, a $7.2 million piece of a larger $620 million telehealth push, has seen 1,200 doctors apply for the $6,000 grants. The goal is for teleconferencing to host some 500,000 consultations by 2015, reducing the need for patients and doctors to travel. It's targeted specifically at GPs in remote areas who may not have access to specialists and experts in certain medical disciplines.

"New Medicare items will allow a range of existing consultation services to be provided via video conferencing and additional rebates on top of these items recognize the increased complexity of providing a service to a remote patient", said Health Minister Nicola Roxon.

The consultation was like many others Professor Boyce conducts at his practice in Lismore, northern New South Wales, but with one big difference: the patient was almost 2000 kilometres away in Cairns.

Under current rules, MBS items for GPs to sit in on telehealth consultations can only be claimed when the specialist is in private practice.

Queensland Health Minister Lawrence Springborg said the arrangement was unfair – both to GPs and public hospital patients – and he called for the system to be revamped.

Dr Ash Collins, a GP based in Temora in regional NSW, said that his practice had been using telemedicine over the last 18 months over a 100 kbps link. Although this was already delivering benefits, and had saved patients about 160 500 km round trips to see specialists in major metropolitan areas, higher internet speeds would improve the quality of care.

Associate Professor Geoffrey Brooke-Cowden from the University of Notre Dam has been in negotiations for several years to establish the trial that will allow patients to a have a face to face consultation with a general practitioner in another town.

He says he has been negotiating for funding with indigenous groups and the state government.

The existing telehealth program already makes it easier for people to receive care and advice via videoconferencing when and where they need it.

Six months after the government introduced Medicare rebates for telehealth consultations, uptake has grown steadily with more than 7000 services provided by over 1200 clinicians around Australia, mostly to rural and remote areas.

The new service was set up by the Southern NSW Medicare Local (SNSWML) in response to an identified gap in psychiatric services.

It allows people with significant mental health issues to have a comprehensive psychiatric assessment or a medication review without the three-month wait to see a visiting psychiatrist or a trip to Canberra or Nowra to consult a private practitioner.

The telehealth scheme enables doctors across NSW to consult people between 7am and 7pm, seven days a week, using technology such as Skype on PC, mobile and tablet platforms.

"Telehealth allows us to deliver these services in new and innovative ways and respond to the changing needs of our community," Ms Skinner told AAP in a statement.

The pilot program will mean healthcare professionals can monitor a patient's health on a daily basis, without the patient needing to leave their home.

Kiama Downs resident Maurie Earls together with his wife Mary signed up for the pilot program this week.

The Northern NSW Local Health District chief executive Chris Crawford announced at a public meeting at Mullumbimby High School last night that the planned open day would give community members a chance to see how the Connecting Critical Care system worked, and discuss their views with himself and staff.

A Commonwealth funded trial is linking Canberra Hospital's emergency department and helicopter base with public hospitals in Queanbeyan, Moruya, Batemans Bay and Cooma.

A spokesman for the New South Wales Health Minister Jillian Skinner says the program allows for funding of a further four sites.

Opposition leader Barry O’Farrell last week pledged $2 million to set up a Telehealth Technology Centre at Penrith.

Staff at the centre, which would be based at Nepean Hospital, would work with acute, primary and community care clinicians, universities, the Federal Government and the non-government sector to explore opportunities which provide care closer to home.

The Northern Star last night reported the Northern NSW Local Health District Board had, on the advice of Mr Crawford, voted to dump a controversial telehealth trial for Mullumbimby that would have meant dropping the hospital's overnight doctor position.

The controversial scheme would see late-night patients assessed using a video link to the Tweed Heads Hospital.

But the chief executive of the local health network, Chris Crawford, says equipment is still being installed and he's yet to make a final decision.

The newly revised guide provides simplified guidance on a range of related implementation, technical and usage issues.