The rebranded telehealth service has maintained that the service is to assist GPs, not to substitute care.
The nation’s newest major player in telehealth has begun a recruitment drive to bring in more GPs, but the service says it is in the business of complementing care, not replacing it.
1800Medicare was officially launched at the beginning of the year as part of a federal election pledge to improve on existing Healthdirect services “under one consistent national service”.
Despite the new branding, 1800Medicare is still helmed by Healthdirect. The agency has acknowledged that the program is “not a substitute” for GP care and will instead act as an assistive tool.
“We’re increasing the extent to which we’re able to support callers to self-care confidently at home, in many cases people are calling us for health advice that didn’t warrant a GP consult,” Healthdirect chief operating officer Travis Hodgson told The Medical Republic.
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“The Medicare appropriation is a substantial funding amount, and we need to maximise the efficient use of that funding across the entire system.
“Accessing a virtual GP provides a range of efficiencies for families not having to drag the kids out in the middle of the night to attend a local emergency department if they can’t get to see their regular GP, which is the preferred option.”
Providing after-hours care has been a point of stress for GPs nationally and is the specific issue that Healthdirect is looking to address with the telehealth service.
Healthdirect has also addressed concerns that the service could fragment GP care, with Mr Hodgson reiterating that the service does have strict prescribing regulations that are informed by general practice information.
“There are several types of e-prescribing capabilities on the service, including a direct engagement with pharmacy or the patient’s GP,” Mr Hodgson told TMR.
“There’s a limited number of scenarios where a consumer might be given a script, and usually it’s just a limited script with a number of days supply, or it’s for a fairly straightforward illness with history being visible in the My Health Record.
“If it is an urgent supply requirement, there’s no repeat scripts available on the service, and there’s also no schedule 8 medicines available through the service.”
The primary objective of this initiative is to reduce the burden on emergency departments through a digitised general practice model that has found the most value in ensuring referrals to the most appropriate in-person services.
Statistics released by Healthdirect have shown that patient referrals to an emergency department was the most common outcome so far, having occurred 361,545 times.
A GP referral was the second most common outcome, having happened 270,457 times.
A virtual GP service was called on in 101,309 instances.
Healthdirect said there was an opportunity for the service to capitalise on rural and regional healthcare by reducing the burden on local GPs and providing immediate professional advice for patients.
“We’ve got a significant utilisation rate of the service historically and even now, with the introduction of 1800Medicare, from rural and remote regions of Australia, including up to 8% of First Nations Australians accounting for the total volume on the service,” Mr Hodgson said to TMR.
“Though it’s not a service that provides ongoing care and maintenance, so it doesn’t address that ongoing challenge in those communities, but it is available for urgent care after hours.
“We do prioritise those coming from areas of limited GP coverage to make sure that we can actually help them in a faster timeframe.
“A lot of those regions are encouraging their consumers to call us after hours, rather than the practice, and are diverting their phones to the 1800Medicare service so that we can deliver what they might need in the after hours.”
