Mr Bailey said technology was providing people with better access to medical specialists each day, but faster internet speeds would improve health outcomes even further.
He said the Federal Government had already introduced incentives for health practitioners to embrace technology and consult via the internet.
But he called on the government to roll out the NBN in Sunraysia and improve the quality of eHealth teleconferencing overnight.
“We’re already recognised by the Federal Government as a leading eHealth site and have been clustered with Bendigo and Shepparton to improve health outcomes there,” Mr Bailey said.
Melbourne’s Royal Australian College of GPs is also impressed with Sunraysia’s use of technology and has adopted the region as a model.
Mr Bailey said Lower Murray Medicare Local owned and operated a product similar to Skype called Vidyo.
The program, manufactured in the US, has helped cut down unnecessary travel for ill patients and is easy for time-poor GPs to operate.
“It is entirely online, so all the GPs need to have is a top-of-the-range web cam,” he said.
“We’ve found this product has been so successful that we use it to attract specialists to the area because Mildura is just starved for specialists.
“Our health sector runs on a fly-in, fly-out basis, with 65 specialists flying into the area each year.
“Only about 22 actually live in Mildura.”
Mr Bailey said currently, many Sunraysia people travelled about five hours each way on a regular basis to access specialist treatment and services.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Kaitlyn Opie
Quelle/Source: Sunraysia Daily, 02.02.2013
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