Telehealth

RNZCGP TARGET 70% CONSULTATIONS BY TELEHEALTH The Royal NZ College General Practice (RNZCGP) and Ministry of Health has identified telehealth as a tool to help protect both patients and providers from COVID-19. RNZCGP made an urgent and essential request to all members to use phone, email or video to reduce in-person consultations by 70%.

The New Zealand Telehealth Forum and Resource Centre website provides guidance and resources for people who want to set up, improve or use a telehealth service within New Zealand. They have pulled together some guidance on using telehealth in New Zealand at this time of COVID-19 which can be viewed here.

In the Western Bay of Plenty we have quickly mobilised and are delivering most consultations by phone. Video consults, however, are less frequently used.

The advantage of videoconference consultations, compared with telephone consults, is that the distant clinician receives a great deal of visual information about the patient and their surroundings. It is also easier for several people to be involved at each site during a videoconference, than it is via a telephone consultation.

Now could be a good time to get your video conferencing capability set up, or to gradually extend the number of consultations you are already delivering via this medium. Health Care Homes Collaborative have produced a guide that provides a step by step approach for implementing video conferencing for most of the commonly used systems; Doxy.me, ManageMyHealth, Health 365, and Indici. You can view it here.

Please get in touch with your GP Liaison or directly with Grant Ardern, Chief Information Officer for WBOP PHO, at granta@wboppho.org.nz if you would like any support with video consultations or other telehealth initiatives.