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Telehealth appointments surge during pandemic

Telehealth appointments surge during pandemic Renee Skirving (pictured with daughter Lexi) is one mother who has benefited from the telehealth lactation consultations.
Bendigo Health plans to re-evaluate the role of telehealth in its model of care after growth in service.

Bendigo Health plans to re-evaluate the role of telehealth in its model of care after a huge uptake in the service during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Over a six-week period in April and May, Bendigo Health conducted roughly 2700 telehealth outpatient appointments across the Loddon Mallee region. In the 12 months prior to this, we did 187 hospital outpatient  appointments via telehealth.

Departments that contributed to this increase include; Oncology, 1010 appointments

Child and Acute Mental Health Services, 352, Outpatient Rehabilitation 220, Speech Pathology, 103 and Midwife Services, 78.

Chief Executive Officer Peter Faulkner said Bendigo Health will undertake a formal review of the telehealth program, to see if it can be developed in a non-COVID healthcare environment.

“In the future we do believe there’s a number of appointments that can and should be done virtually for patient conveniences and the efficiency of our service,” he said.

“We need to determine what patients benefit the most (from telehealth), what part of the overall journey of a patient’s care is appropriate for telehealth and what is appropriate to be done face to face.”

Bendigo Health recently surveyed the telehealth experience of 41 oncology patients and 76% indicated they would like telehealth to be an ongoing option for certain appointments.

 Lactation Consultant Carolyn Arandt has been running group sessions during COVID-19, reaching mothers from Swan Hill to Nhill.

 “Some of the first time Mums have been quite isolated and anxious, so being able to provide the session benefits them,” she said.

 “We’ve been able to refine our skills and use various props to empower women and get to know their babies and their cues and trust that together they will make it through the journey of the early transition to parenthood.

“We need to increase the amount of telehealth we’re doing now because we’re more skilled in it, and trust it works, I see no reason why it’s something why we can’t continue.”