Coronavirus: GPs to bolster telehealth services

Doctors on the frontline in the battle against the coronavirus will increasingly be dealing with their patients online.

AMA national president Dr Tony Bartone said telehealth conferencing for GPs and potential coronavirus victims will be ready “as soon as possible”. Picture: Kym Smith

Doctors will protect themselves from coronavirus by dealing with more of their patients online, as the Australian Medical Association slams the states’ handling of the health crisis.

Health Minister Greg Hunt is working with the AMA and state counterparts to bolster telehealth capabilities as doctors and health professionals begin to contract the virus, with potential outbreaks now linked to an aged-care worker in Sydney and Melbourne doctor Chris Higgins.

The technological advance came as concerns grew around the states’ handling of coronavirus as governments send out mixed messages on school attendance and handshakes, and Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos comes under pressure to apologise to Dr Higgins (father of music star Missy Higgins) for saying she was “flabbergasted” he went to work.

AMA national president Tony Bartone said on Melbourne that telehealth conferencing for GPs and potential coronavirus victims will be ready “as soon as possible” and called for the government to commit to an enhanced public information campaign.

“The decision is being finetuned at the moment in terms of the details and underlying logistics, but this (telehealth conferencing) is clearly a very clever way, an innovative way of using the scarce resources, of using the available network of the medical profession and also to minimise the movement of patients,” he said.

“I think it is extremely important to assist with the timely, and indeed the effective, management of a population that is clearly worried, clearly anxious.

“But it needs to be a part of many other measures, including a much, much more robust and unscaled information campaign to the community about the importance of washing hands, about the importance of appropriate coughing and what to do if you have symptoms.”

Mr Hunt said in Melbourne that telehealth services would be ready by the end of the week.

“We are absolutely intending to provide the telehealth services,” he said.

“We’re designing them now and we will be delivering them, my expectation is, before the end of the week.”

The doctors’ union is particularly concerned by the messaging of state governments over the ­escalating coronavirus crisis and its effect on managing the fear in the public.

At the start of the crisis, different states were giving conflicting advice to the federal government on whether children returning from China should be attending school.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk — who faces an election in October — has used the coronavirus to attack the federal government on border controls and hospital funding.

And NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard’s advice for people to not shake hands and kiss during the coronavirus crisis has been contradicted by other federal and state officials.

Dr Bartone told The Australian that the states had to better co-­ordinate their messages.

“Right from the beginning, we have had the states going in different directions … whether it was ­attending schools or the advice on handshakes,” he said.

“People need calm, consistent messaging from governments. Right now, frontline doctors feel utterly exposed.”