Pharmacy Daily | Patients not hanging up on telehealth

VIRTUAL care delivered through telephone or video conference has now embedded itself as a core component of healthcare delivery in NSW, new market reports released today have revealed.

According to the Bureau of Health Information's (BHI) Healthcare in Focus - Virtual Care in NSW report, virtual appointments with health professionals spiked during the pandemic before settling back into a position as an alternative to the traditional in-person consultation.

With the pandemic now over, the market penetration of virtual care has gradually declined to its current role as a back-up method.

BHI Chief Executive, Dr Diane Watson, said virtual care has been a fast-changing way of providing healthcare in recent years.

"Having expanded rapidly through necessity during the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual care is now embedded as a core component of healthcare delivery in NSW and most patients are providing positive ratings of their experiences," explained Dr Watson.

Prior to the pandemic, virtual care was almost unused in NSW, making up less than 1% of all GP and specialist consultations subsidised by the Federal Government's Medicare Benefits Schedule.

Out of necessity rather than organic demand, virtual consultations then peaked at 23% for GPs and 16% for specialists in 2021 before beginning to taper off.

The Healthcare in Focus report also explores around 20,000 instances of virtual care received by NSW hospital outpatients and GPs after discharge, showing the majority of patients experienced positive interactions and outcomes.

"The report also shows that the more patients used virtual care, the more likely they were to rate their overall virtual care highly; to say they would use virtual care again if given the choice; and to say the care and treatment they received through virtual care helped them."

The data showed urban patients were higher users of virtual care, but rural patients said they would use it again if given the option. ML