Telehealth is making doctors more accessible than ever, cutting down travel for North Quenslanders

Right now, you can go online and be talking to a doctor in under 30 minutes – all without getting out of your chair. Telehealth has changed the game, and North Queenslanders are big fans.

Doctor Ganesh Naidoo in Hobart at the RACGP conference. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Right now, you can go online, see a doctor within 30 minutes, and receive a digital prescription to fill at any chemist – all without getting out of your chair.

Telehealth has changed the game, and North Queenslanders are among its biggest users.

Of the telehealth providers currently running in Australia, Medmate has emerged as a popular choice for North Queenslanders.

CEO Ganesh Naidoo, a former Cairns GP, said he got the idea for Medmate when he realised how far his patients were travelling – some even flying from Port Moresby – to see him.

“I was a GP in Far North Queensland for over a decade, and patients would drive for hours just to see me for 15 minutes,” Dr Naidoo said.

“It was ridiculous people had to do that for something so simple, and we tried doing Skype appointments but it was hard because back then scripts had to be paper, so I couldn’t give them the scripts.”

Former Cairns GP and Medmate CEO Ganesh Naidoo

Dr Naidoo said he started working hard with the government to push for an encrypted digital script system, and in 2020, the very first ‘e-prescription’ to be transferred from an Australian doctor to a patient was exchanged.

Since 2020, more than 220 million e-prescriptions have been issued by Australian GPs and nurse practitioners.

eScripts or e-prescriptions were brought in by the Australian Government in 2020. Since then, over 220 million have been issued by GPs.

“Now that electronic scripts are possible, I can talk to the patient, SMS their script to them, which they take to any pharmacist to get their medication,” Dr Naidoo said.

“Our doctors are available from 7am to 11pm, and they do everything from giving expert medical advice, to prescription refills.”

Dr Naidoo said a portion of their regular users were people in aged care facilities, who can’t drive to their local GP easily.

“It’s hard for them to get to the doctor, and hard for busy GP’s to visit the aged care facilities, so we do a lot of prescription refills and things for people in that situation.”

An electronic prescriptions or e-prescription is sent straight to a patient's phone from a GP, and can be scanned by an pharmacist.

In the last four years, Medmate has grown rapidly and currently employs 250 doctors who see over 300,000 patients a year.

“We are Australia-wide but it’s interesting because our patient-per-capita is higher in North Queensland, especially in places like Townsville, Charters Towers, Ingham, Port Douglas, and the Atherton Tablelands,” Dr Naidoo said.

“We are hearing from people that it’s hard to see a doctor quickly, it’s expensive, and some can’t get into a doctor because clinics aren’t accepting new patients.”

Generic stock images of doctor waiting room and health consult. Picture: iStock

Dr Naidoo said telehealth was valuable for “doing small things for people”, but it didn’t replace the relationship people had with their GP.

Kelso man Darren Campbell uses Medmate to get doctor’s certificates, per his workplace’s sick day policy.

“I mainly use Medmate for getting a doctor’s certificate for work, because I don’t want to be going into a waiting room sick or clogging up an ER for something so simple,” Mr Campbell said.

“I have found their service to be quite professional, and caring … it takes the guest work out and stops me from googling everything.”

Dr Naidoo said online appointments through Medmate start at $19.99 – and they also do bulk-billing. Picture: iStock

Mr Campbell said he also believed Medmate was a good service for people with mental health issues, because it can be accessed without much effort or leaving home.

Medmate offers specific $35.00 mental health consults, alongside weight loss consults and blood test referrals.

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners said it fully supported telehealth alternatives.

Medmate is still owned by its founders, Dr Naidoo, pharmacist Wael Hanna, data expert Dilip Rao and specialist Sudhir Rao.

Originally published as Telehealth is making doctors more accessible than ever, cutting down travel for North Quenslanders