Country Australians are increasingly turning to technology to bypass long delays in seeing a general practitioner (GP) for medical certificates and prescription renewals, as a crackdown on telehealth looms.
Midnight Health, a start-up which offers online medical consultations, electronic prescriptions and pharmacy deliveries, says rural Australians make up 30 percent of its 85,000 customers.
The Brisbane-based start-up, which last week announced $24 million (US$16 million) in renewed investment from private health insurance company NIB, said it reaches 70 percent of regional postcodes, including many remote towns.
“We get repeated messages coming from our customers in rural areas around the inability to access GPs in a timely manner,” Midnight Health co-founder Nic Blair told AAP.
“Digital healthcare is really well suited to improving that accessibility.”
Telehealth took off during COVID-19 lockdowns and is seen as critical for the future of healthcare, with the federal government setting aside $5.9 million (US$4 million) for long phone consultations in the budget.
But emerging digital models of care—which involve patients filling out web forms and communicating with doctors online—have caused some concern in the medical establishment.
The Medical Board will restrict some forms of telehealth from September, updating its guidelines to say prescribing via text, email, or online platforms without real-time consultation is bad practice.
Board chair, Anne Tonkin, said doctors who have not consulted directly with patients in-person or over the phone cannot exercise safe clinical judgement.
“(Telehealth) plays an important role in healthcare in Australia and has opened great opportunities to improve access to and delivery of care, including to rural and remote patients and people living with disadvantage,” Tonkin said.
“The interaction between a doctor and their patient is an important element in all consultations, including telehealth consultations.”
Technology companies have recently ramped up efforts to fill the void left by worsening GP shortages, offering virtual reality headsets in rural clinics, satellite internet connections and web-based consultations and prescriptions.
Blair said Midnight Health had worked with specialists and advisors to develop safe protocols for its prescribing platform and the restrictions put Australia behind international markets.
The new rules will shift some of its operations, but not its in-demand over-the-counter pharmacy products, Blair said.
“We’re certainly happy to continue uplifting and improving patient safety in line with the Medical Board guidelines,” Blair said.
NIB’s chief executive Mark Fitzgibbon said the insurer continued to invest in technology which moves away from “one size fits all” care.
Anonymised customer data from online platforms can also pinpoint community health trends and help build targeted programs, Fitzgibbon said.
“The future of healthcare as a combination of physical, virtual and in-home, where we’re substituting the lack of physical services with digital and in-home services.”
