❓ A parliamentary question regarding the effectiveness of the Southern Inland Health Initiative's emergency telehealth service in rural WA, particularly in the Eyre electorate, and the Minister's positive response highlighting its benefits and future expansion.
AnsweredQoN 650Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
SOUTHERN INLAND HEALTH INITIATIVE —
EMERGENCY TELEHEALTH SERVICE
650. Dr G.G. JACOBS to the Minister for Regional
Development:
As a general practitioner in
Esperance, I am pleased to be a part of a Liberal–National government
that has such a strong commitment to rural health. As part of this commitment,
I understand that a new emergency telehealth service is being trialled under
the royalties for regions–funded southern inland health initiative.
With this in mind, can the minister please inform the house how this service is
responding to emergencies in rural and remote areas such as my electorate of
Eyre?
EMERGENCY TELEHEALTH SERVICE
650. Dr G.G. JACOBS to the Minister for Regional
Development:
As a general practitioner in
Esperance, I am pleased to be a part of a Liberal–National government
that has such a strong commitment to rural health. As part of this commitment,
I understand that a new emergency telehealth service is being trialled under
the royalties for regions–funded southern inland health initiative.
With this in mind, can the minister please inform the house how this service is
responding to emergencies in rural and remote areas such as my electorate of
Eyre?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for Eyre for the
question and for his deep interest in, and knowledge of, this issue, obviously,
being a doctor in a regional area. The emergency telehealth service is a pilot
project, providing telemedicine to rural hospitals by specialist emergency
physicians. We have all heard in this place over many years about the potential
for telehealth, but we are now doing it as opposed to talking about it. It is a
really important initiative that is starting to deliver some important
outcomes. This pilot project started at the end of August, and in just seven
weeks has already treated more than 250 patients. The provisioning doctors are
specialist emergency physicians who work out of the city-based Emergency
Telehealth Centre, and their aim is to provide effective emergency care via
telehealth to allow quick diagnosis and immediate treatment for regional
paramedics or regional hospitals that might not at that time, due to it being a
weekend or after hours, have a doctor on hand. The service is led by Dr Garth
Herrington, and it operates Friday to Sunday, from 10.00 am to 10.00 pm. Dr
Herrington is currently linked to the hospitals in the regions of Northam,
Narrogin, Beverley, Cunderdin, Goomalling, Southern Cross, Wongan Hills,
Wyalkatchem and York. The service includes remote diagnosis and treatment, and
enables the emergency telehealth service doctors to facilitate transfers
effectively, and also avoid transfers. We are getting better triaging of
patients who might otherwise have been put immediately onto the Royal Flying
Doctor Service. We are getting much better triaging by getting the specialist
emergency physicians to play a role in that assessment.
Just recently there was a terrible,
tragic accident in Southern Cross. Unfortunately, there were three fatalities,
and seven people were injured in that accident in Southern Cross, in the member
for Eyre's electorate, on Great Eastern Highway. Emergency physician Dr
Willis was on duty and no doctor was available in Southern Cross at the time of
the accident. Nursing staff and a community paramedic were on hand to assist.
Patients were managed in the emergency department of Southern Cross Hospital
from around 9.00 pm until 3.00 am the following day. Via the emergency
telehealth service, Dr Willis assisted in the assessment of the patients at Southern
Cross and provided immediate medical advice and treatment, ensuring that the
RFDS and St John Ambulance were well informed to manage their retrievals to
metropolitan hospitals so that those patients could receive the level of care
that they needed. The flying doctor arrived within one and a half hours of
being notified of the accident and began treating and transporting the
patients. Using the telehealth system, Dr Willis coordinated the retrieval of
patients and worked with Royal Perth Hospital, Princess Margaret Hospital, St
John Ambulance and the Royal Flying Doctor Service to ensure that those
accident victims got the best possible treatment that we could give them,
rather than the disappointment, I suppose, of being in a remote location,
having their lives at risk and not being able to get the care that they needed.
I am really excited about where this telehealth trial will lead to, now that we
have the Minister for Health leading this pilot program to link specialist
emergency physicians to people in remote communities who have never had that
access before.
The trial will be expanded
throughout the wheatbelt. Merredin will be rolled into the trial for the first
time tomorrow. Planning is underway to initiate a regional telehealth emergency
service in the goldfields, with Kalgoorlie as the provider of the site. We will
put those specialist emergency physicians into Kalgoorlie and allow them to
work with a network of hospitals so that we always have the best physician to
deal with accidents, if they occur. These partnerships with regional emergency
departments and the emergency telehealth service will enable further expansion
of specialist emergency medicine and service provision across regional Western
Australia.
This pilot is leading edge. We are
working really hard for the remote areas that do not have access to our most
highly trained doctors. Through telehealth, we will be able to link those areas
to the most highly trained doctors in our Perth hospital system. I think we are
at the start of an important changing face in providing emergency medicine to
regional areas, as we become able to link the best physicians with the doctors,
the paramedics and the volunteers in regional communities. I thank the Minister
for Health for his leadership in this field and look forward to seeing more
good results into the future.
question and for his deep interest in, and knowledge of, this issue, obviously,
being a doctor in a regional area. The emergency telehealth service is a pilot
project, providing telemedicine to rural hospitals by specialist emergency
physicians. We have all heard in this place over many years about the potential
for telehealth, but we are now doing it as opposed to talking about it. It is a
really important initiative that is starting to deliver some important
outcomes. This pilot project started at the end of August, and in just seven
weeks has already treated more than 250 patients. The provisioning doctors are
specialist emergency physicians who work out of the city-based Emergency
Telehealth Centre, and their aim is to provide effective emergency care via
telehealth to allow quick diagnosis and immediate treatment for regional
paramedics or regional hospitals that might not at that time, due to it being a
weekend or after hours, have a doctor on hand. The service is led by Dr Garth
Herrington, and it operates Friday to Sunday, from 10.00 am to 10.00 pm. Dr
Herrington is currently linked to the hospitals in the regions of Northam,
Narrogin, Beverley, Cunderdin, Goomalling, Southern Cross, Wongan Hills,
Wyalkatchem and York. The service includes remote diagnosis and treatment, and
enables the emergency telehealth service doctors to facilitate transfers
effectively, and also avoid transfers. We are getting better triaging of
patients who might otherwise have been put immediately onto the Royal Flying
Doctor Service. We are getting much better triaging by getting the specialist
emergency physicians to play a role in that assessment.
Just recently there was a terrible,
tragic accident in Southern Cross. Unfortunately, there were three fatalities,
and seven people were injured in that accident in Southern Cross, in the member
for Eyre's electorate, on Great Eastern Highway. Emergency physician Dr
Willis was on duty and no doctor was available in Southern Cross at the time of
the accident. Nursing staff and a community paramedic were on hand to assist.
Patients were managed in the emergency department of Southern Cross Hospital
from around 9.00 pm until 3.00 am the following day. Via the emergency
telehealth service, Dr Willis assisted in the assessment of the patients at Southern
Cross and provided immediate medical advice and treatment, ensuring that the
RFDS and St John Ambulance were well informed to manage their retrievals to
metropolitan hospitals so that those patients could receive the level of care
that they needed. The flying doctor arrived within one and a half hours of
being notified of the accident and began treating and transporting the
patients. Using the telehealth system, Dr Willis coordinated the retrieval of
patients and worked with Royal Perth Hospital, Princess Margaret Hospital, St
John Ambulance and the Royal Flying Doctor Service to ensure that those
accident victims got the best possible treatment that we could give them,
rather than the disappointment, I suppose, of being in a remote location,
having their lives at risk and not being able to get the care that they needed.
I am really excited about where this telehealth trial will lead to, now that we
have the Minister for Health leading this pilot program to link specialist
emergency physicians to people in remote communities who have never had that
access before.
The trial will be expanded
throughout the wheatbelt. Merredin will be rolled into the trial for the first
time tomorrow. Planning is underway to initiate a regional telehealth emergency
service in the goldfields, with Kalgoorlie as the provider of the site. We will
put those specialist emergency physicians into Kalgoorlie and allow them to
work with a network of hospitals so that we always have the best physician to
deal with accidents, if they occur. These partnerships with regional emergency
departments and the emergency telehealth service will enable further expansion
of specialist emergency medicine and service provision across regional Western
Australia.
This pilot is leading edge. We are
working really hard for the remote areas that do not have access to our most
highly trained doctors. Through telehealth, we will be able to link those areas
to the most highly trained doctors in our Perth hospital system. I think we are
at the start of an important changing face in providing emergency medicine to
regional areas, as we become able to link the best physicians with the doctors,
the paramedics and the volunteers in regional communities. I thank the Minister
for Health for his leadership in this field and look forward to seeing more
good results into the future.
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