CEO of the Healthy Communities Foundation Australia, Mark Burdack, called on governments and industry to invest in community consultation and health system literacy if we are to realise the benefits of advances in medical technology, services and treatments.
Speaking at the 17th National Rural Health Conference in Perth, Mr Burdack said:
“Telehealth has been around since the invention of the telephone, so let’s not get carried away with the idea that it is something new and shiny.
“It is just an advance on a very traditional way of delivering health care, so we need to treat it like any other advancement in the provision of care and remember to talk to communities and remain focussed on outcomes.
“There can be no doubt that Telehealth is a critical and important tool that will improve access to care for people right across Australia, not just in rural and remote towns.
“But when Telehealth is imposed on rural and remote towns without meaningful consultation, or a local rural GP is forced to leave town due to the loss of local business, it leads to reasonable suspicions that Telehealth is being used to save money, not improve health.
“As one woman in Brewarrina told me, ‘if Telehealth is so good, then why don’t they use it to replace all the docs in the cities and send them out our way?’”.
Mr Burdack said that public health institutions are experiencing unprecedented levels of consumer demand, and services are under severe pressure. He acknowledges that this is adversely impacting both consumers, as well as the wellbeing of our health and care workforce and leading to the rapid adoption of Telehealth as a demand management solution.
“I think the COVID crisis allowed us to do new things, like expanding Telehealth, without the same level of consultation and engagement we would normally undertake” said Mr Burdack.
“But COVID is now behind us as a pandemic, and we need to get back to the business of talking to communities to build trust and confidence.
“People should value these technologies because they are actually far better options in many situations than traditional bricks and mortar approaches. We need to articulate why this is the case and bring people with us.
“We are seeing dramatic improvements in health outcomes for rural and remote people because the technology has allowed us to be far more proactive in partnering with patients around chronic disease management and care.
“We are seeing aged care homes that were about to close, resulting in residents being relocated from their home towns, that are now open and thriving because of the ability to access a much wider range of health care services for residents.
“But we need to adopt the same evidence-based, and consultative, approach to the roll-out of these technologies as we have done for any other innovation in health care.
“We have in our hands one of the most transformative health tools in modern history.
“The biggest risk I see is grandstanding where we roll Telehealth out for conditions for which it is not appropriate, we do not take communities with us in the transition and create a backlash, or we do not consider the wider impact of Telehealth on the delicate workforce balance in local economies and end up doing more damage than good.
“The Foundation is a large provider of Telehealth care to rural and remote people, and we get satisfaction ratings from communities and clinicians of 95% plus because we talk to users, clinicians and businesses to make sure we get the service and balance right.
“We must be satisfied by the evidence that Telehealth will deliver the same or better outcomes for rural and remote communities compared to traditional approaches, or we won’t use it. It’s that simple.
“We need to manage the introduction of these new models of care really well by going back to the basics and making sure that the technology is improving health outcomes and access” said Mr Burdack.
The Healthy Communities Foundation Australia, through its social enterprise HealthAccess, delivers virtual and hybrid modes of physical and mental health care to a catchment of more than one million rural and remote people across eastern Australia. With 35 rural GPs on its rosters, it offers a service that understands the context and needs of rural and remote people, which has contributed to consistently high satisfaction ratings among users.
100% of any income generated through HealthAccess goes back into supporting rural and remote communities to build sustainable health systems, and to conduct research into ways of improving rural and remote health and access.
For more information call 0418974988.
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