❓ Dr. Jacobs inquires about the emergency telehealth service, part of the Southern Inland Health Initiative. The Minister for Health details the service's operation, successes, and future expansion, highlighting its importance in remote areas.
AnsweredQoN 721Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
EMERGENCY TELEHEALTH SERVICE
721. Dr G.G. JACOBS to the Minister for Health:
I understand that the emergency telehealth service is a pilot
project that was recently launched as a component of the $565 million southern
inland health initiative. As a previous general practitioner in Esperance, I am
well aware just how important this initiative is. With this in mind, could the
minister please outline to the house this service and the successes it has
achieved?
721. Dr G.G. JACOBS to the Minister for Health:
I understand that the emergency telehealth service is a pilot
project that was recently launched as a component of the $565 million southern
inland health initiative. As a previous general practitioner in Esperance, I am
well aware just how important this initiative is. With this in mind, could the
minister please outline to the house this service and the successes it has
achieved?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for the question. Members can hear the
support I get from the member on my left. I asked, ''Why do I always get
to go first? Is it because I like to open the batting?'', and he said, ''It
is because we do not mind losing an early wicket''!
This is a very important question about something that I am
fairly passionate about—telehealth in the bush. As part of the southern
inland health initiative, which is funded to the tune of $565 million by
royalties for regions, we are putting in a lot of extra services and taking
over the services the commonwealth should have provided. We reached the stage
at which we gave up on the commonwealth providing adequate services through
primary health, which is its responsibility, in rural areas and so we have put
together this half-a-billion-dollar package. One of the components of that
package is telehealth. We have started trialling the expansion of the
telehealth program that has operated in the past. We have a new scheme, which
operates from 10.00 am to 10.00 pm Friday to Sunday, led by Dr Garth
Herrington. That links services to Northam, Narrogin, Beverley, Cunderdin,
Goomalling, Southern Cross, Wongan Hills, Wyalkatchem and York. In the first
seven weeks of operation, 250 patients were treated using that telehealth
service. We are now expanding the trial to Merredin and in the very near future
into Kalgoorlie. I will just give members an example of how it works and the
benefits it creates. There was a fatal accident near Southern Cross on 5 October
this year. We used the telehealth service to help seven people who were injured
in that accident. Sadly, there were three fatalities. Dr Willis, an emergency
physician, was on duty at that time. We used telehealth through the Southern
Cross Hospital from nine in the evening right through to 3.00 am, when those
patients were treated and stabilised. Communication occurred with the Royal
Flying Doctor Service and St John Ambulance to get those patients to hospital
and ensure they were well treated, stabilised and properly managed. When there
is an accident of that severity, it is a scary situation to be in for the nurse
or even the doctor who is on duty at the time when they have people with
life-threatening issues and they are often the only people there. The nurse
linked up through telehealth to the emergency physician, who was able to guide
her through all the things she needed to do to manage and stabilise those
patients. It was an extremely effective result.
We were also in the electorate of
the member for Kalgoorlie, visiting the hospital at Laverton when we linked up
through telehealth with a doctor down in Perth. We were able to chat to him and
he could zero in on the patient on the table. One of my staff was there at the
time. We could look at medical problems that person may have, direct treatment
and directly converse from such a distance.
In the future it will mean that in
areas where it is very difficult to find GPs—in fact, in areas where
GPs cannot be found—we will be able to have a GP sitting at home
somewhere on his computer doing medical sessions in a remote community with the
assistance of a nurse. They will be able to spend hours, if not days, per week
working directly into that surgery and ensuring that people who do not have
access to GPs at least have the next best thing, which is a GP being able to
link in, particularly if we can get nurse practitioners out there who have
their own levels of skills that would blend perfectly with that sort of
arrangement.
Telehealth is the way of the future.
This government is working very hard on a new model of telehealth across this
state. Over the next two years we will see amazing changes in the way people
are managed in remote parts of this state.
support I get from the member on my left. I asked, ''Why do I always get
to go first? Is it because I like to open the batting?'', and he said, ''It
is because we do not mind losing an early wicket''!
This is a very important question about something that I am
fairly passionate about—telehealth in the bush. As part of the southern
inland health initiative, which is funded to the tune of $565 million by
royalties for regions, we are putting in a lot of extra services and taking
over the services the commonwealth should have provided. We reached the stage
at which we gave up on the commonwealth providing adequate services through
primary health, which is its responsibility, in rural areas and so we have put
together this half-a-billion-dollar package. One of the components of that
package is telehealth. We have started trialling the expansion of the
telehealth program that has operated in the past. We have a new scheme, which
operates from 10.00 am to 10.00 pm Friday to Sunday, led by Dr Garth
Herrington. That links services to Northam, Narrogin, Beverley, Cunderdin,
Goomalling, Southern Cross, Wongan Hills, Wyalkatchem and York. In the first
seven weeks of operation, 250 patients were treated using that telehealth
service. We are now expanding the trial to Merredin and in the very near future
into Kalgoorlie. I will just give members an example of how it works and the
benefits it creates. There was a fatal accident near Southern Cross on 5 October
this year. We used the telehealth service to help seven people who were injured
in that accident. Sadly, there were three fatalities. Dr Willis, an emergency
physician, was on duty at that time. We used telehealth through the Southern
Cross Hospital from nine in the evening right through to 3.00 am, when those
patients were treated and stabilised. Communication occurred with the Royal
Flying Doctor Service and St John Ambulance to get those patients to hospital
and ensure they were well treated, stabilised and properly managed. When there
is an accident of that severity, it is a scary situation to be in for the nurse
or even the doctor who is on duty at the time when they have people with
life-threatening issues and they are often the only people there. The nurse
linked up through telehealth to the emergency physician, who was able to guide
her through all the things she needed to do to manage and stabilise those
patients. It was an extremely effective result.
We were also in the electorate of
the member for Kalgoorlie, visiting the hospital at Laverton when we linked up
through telehealth with a doctor down in Perth. We were able to chat to him and
he could zero in on the patient on the table. One of my staff was there at the
time. We could look at medical problems that person may have, direct treatment
and directly converse from such a distance.
In the future it will mean that in
areas where it is very difficult to find GPs—in fact, in areas where
GPs cannot be found—we will be able to have a GP sitting at home
somewhere on his computer doing medical sessions in a remote community with the
assistance of a nurse. They will be able to spend hours, if not days, per week
working directly into that surgery and ensuring that people who do not have
access to GPs at least have the next best thing, which is a GP being able to
link in, particularly if we can get nurse practitioners out there who have
their own levels of skills that would blend perfectly with that sort of
arrangement.
Telehealth is the way of the future.
This government is working very hard on a new model of telehealth across this
state. Over the next two years we will see amazing changes in the way people
are managed in remote parts of this state.
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