Tasmanian telehealth service GP Assist will be ceasing service delivery by the end of the month.
The Tasmanian state election has been nothing short of eventful with the voting grill getting even hotter after it was announced that a popular PHN-funded telehealth service would end operations within the month.
The long-running GP Assist service has been considered as a critical and highly efficient backbone of after-hours telehealth care in Tasmania.
Past July 31, if there is no immediate action to fill the gap left by GP Assist, Tasmania is expected to lose state-wide after-hours GP coverage for rural hospitals and the general public amongst others.
“Without urgent action there is an immediate risk of dangerous gaps in after-hours health coverage in Tasmania, increased pressure on emergency departments and increased pressure on GPs, particularly rural GPs, risking further burnout and workforce loss in critical areas,” rural GP Dr Phil Pullinger said.
Tasmanian health advocacy bodies are calling for the Government’s urgent support to collaborate with Primary Health Tasmania and the GP Assist working group to maintain services and transition to a modernised “Tasmanian Virtual ED” model.
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This model has been implemented in Victoria with statistics to support the initiative’s viability.
“The Victorian Virtual ED has been successful in working with other stakeholders across Victoria to treat 900-1100 patients daily, and divert 80-90% of those patients away from hospital EDs, which is helping to reduce the load on our busy hospitals,” GP Hobart Emily Isham said.
“The VVED is very keen to partner with the Tasmanian Government and the GP Assist working group to maintain essential acute care services for all Tasmanians and transition to a modernised Tasmanian Virtual ED model, staffed by Tasmanian clinicians.”
Reasons for why the service has been cancelled are varied with no definitive reason given as of reporting.
However, recent federal changes to transition to the ‘1800 Medicare’ federal initiative and a withdrawal from its current provider have been touted as potential reasons for the cancellation.
Palliative and preventive care are both expected to take a big hit from this cancellation, due to how essential the service has been.
“GP Assist has been doing a great job for a long time of making sure people don’t go without crucial medications, and also providing a lot of that support to residential aged around Tassie,” RACGP Specific Interests Child and Young Person’s Health Chair Dr Tim Jones told The Medical Republic.
“This is a casualty of an awkward transition between two different federally supported ways of delivering out of hours GP support.
“There’s going to be quite a significant time period until 1800Medicare is up and running and potentially covering some of these gaps, and we don’t necessarily think there’s any existing services that can cover that gap at the moment.”
