Now elderly patients and severely ill cancer patients will be able to see their specialist or GP with the click of a mouse, even if they are hundreds of kilometres away. This will be possible with a $20.6 million pilot program that starts this July. The program will use the national broadband network to deliver telehealth services to older Australians, cancer patients and those in palliative care.
Groups can apply for grants, typically of between $1 million and $3 million, to conduct two-year trials in telehealth for patients, particularly in regional and rural areas. Applications to participate in the program will open in the next two months.
The government's eventual plan for the telehealth system is that it will connect homes, doctor surgeries, pharmacies, clinics, aged-care facilities and allied health professionals. It will use the trial program to get feedback on how it and other health care measures can be delivered nationally.
Health Minister Tanya Plibersek said telehealth provides country patients with more care options. Ms Plibersek said the NBN telehealth pilot program would offer innovative services. “These will include having health indicators monitored remotely - for instance, your doctor being able to take your blood pressure online while you are at home - or receiving medical consultations and healthy living support in the home,” she said in a statement on Sunday.
Broadband Minister Stephen Conroy said it was wrong to assume older people did not like using technology. Aged Care Association Australia chief executive Rod Young said the use of technology was vital to ensure elderly people continued to receive access to quality care.
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