Telehealth resources support uptake of virtual care

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eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

A new set of telehealth resources have been published as health providers nationwide start to implement virtual care options for patients.

The Government is pumping $20 million into increasing telehealth capacity for general practice and community providers as part of its COVID-19 response.

The NZ Telehealth Leadership Group, an advisory group to the Ministry of Health, has worked with Health Navigator on the resources with patient-facing information housed on the Health Navigator website.

The NZ Telehealth Resource Centre has a Guide for Health Providers and a Guide for Consumers, as well as case studies, and all resources will continue to be updated.

NZTLG chair Ruth Large says the group worked with the Royal NZ College of GPs on the materials, which has asked all practices to do a virtual consult with patients before seeing anyone in-person, starting from March 23. 

She says the aim is to help health professionals rapidly move to a different way of working.

“We want to provide reassurance as fast as we can to patients and clinicians that they can still receive high quality clinical care from their providers, but that’s going to be in a different way,” she says.

Large says 90 per cent of a diagnosis is made by using patient history and once a health professional has a relationship with a patient, it is often not necessary to physically examine them. 

By having a single reliable source of information for telehealth in New Zealand, the NZTLG hopes to prevent others from feeling they need to create their own material. 

“We hope to take the pressure off health providers to allow them to focus on the important bits,” says Large.

She says telehealth technology is not a significant barrier to implementation, but providers need guidance on changing work processes and continuing to have access to patient notes.

“The challenge is information sharing and there are some regulatory challenges so we’re working hard with the Ministry to get over them,” she tells eHealthNews.nz.

This includes the requirement that there be a physical signature on prescriptions. Also, overcoming the financial barriers to wider uptake of digital services such as the National Electronic Prescription Service and patient portals.

She encouraged health providers working on telehealth implementations to work with the NZTLG to approach challenges such as these collaboratively.

“If we do it in a central way we will reduce the amount of work for everybody,” she says.

If you would like to provide feedback on this news story, please contact the editor Rebecca McBeth.

Read more news:

GPs move to digital first
Telehealth gets $20 million injection

For more information and resources about COVID-19 go to https://www.hinz.org.nz/page/covid19

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