The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has welcomed a temporary reprieve for some telehealth consultations but urged the Government to go even further in securing the future of telehealth services so that no patients are left behind.
It comes following an emergency meeting of National Cabinet as COVID-19 case numbers soar across Australia. On 1 July this year, the Government removed Medicare rebates for telephone consultations lasting longer than 20 minutes, a decision the RACGP warned was particularly detrimental for vulnerable patient groups. After today’s meeting, the Government announced that longer telehealth phone consultations will be available for patients who may need access to COVID-19 antiviral drugs until the end of October. The Government has also extended paid pandemic leave until 30 September, with the costs covered 50-50 with the states.
RACGP President Adj. Professor Karen Price said that today’s announcement would help more patients access antiviral treatments.
“Allowing longer phone consultations for patients who may be eligible to receive potentially life-saving COVID-19 antivirals is a sensible decision,” she said.
“The Royal Australian College of GPs welcomed the expansion of antiviral access last weekend and for good reason – these treatments can make all the difference between someone suffering relatively minor effects or ending up in hospital. Conducting a consultation to determine suitability for these treatments is not straightforward and takes time. We have to figure out how the antivirals interact with a host of other drugs and whether they are suitable for each individual patient.
“So, today’s announcement providing a temporary reprieve for longer telehealth phone consultations is timely. We want to encourage more people to talk to their GP about accessing these drugs at a time when the virus is running rampant in communities across Australia, taking lives, and putting tremendous strain on our health system.
“Extending paid pandemic leave is also a sound call. We don’t want people, particularly those on casual employment without adequate access to sick leave, avoiding COVID-19 tests or going to work COVID-19-positive because they see no other choice. Now is the time to do everything we can to limit community transmission, and that includes ensuring people who contract the virus are isolating safely at home after taking a positive test.”
The RACGP President warned, however, that today’s announcement didn’t go far enough on the telehealth front.
“I will say it until I am blue in the face, longer telehealth consultations via phone must be a permanent fixture of our telehealth system,” she said.
“Anything less is not good enough as far as I’m concerned. Following my meeting with the AMA and Health Minister Mark Butler yesterday, it is disappointing that the Government has elected not to re-introduce Medicare rebates for longer phone consultations for all patients. Until this changes, the status quo is particularly detrimental for people in rural and remote communities, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, older people and those with disability or limited mobility. Remember too, that these very patients already have poorer health outcomes than the general population nation-wide so making these Medicare items for longer phone consultations permanent is the only solution that makes sense.
“As our Vice President Bruce Willett said just last week – put yourself in the shoes of a patient in a rural area with multiple health conditions they have to carefully manage who has to drive a long way to see a GP face-to-face and isn’t confident using video technology platforms. For patients like this in towns across Australia, a longer phone consult is ideal. So, unless the 1 July telehealth cuts are reversed, this will significantly disadvantage access to critical general practice care.
“My colleagues and I will continue the fight. Longer telephone consultations must be a permanent fixture of telehealth because no patient should be left behind, especially outside of major cities. We also want to see Medicare phone items for chronic disease management and mental health services reinstated as part of the permanent telehealth model.”
To support safe, high-quality care for all Australians, the RACGP firmly believes that telehealth consultations must be:
- available for all GP consultation lengths and types
- valued at the same level as face-to-face and video items
- linked to a patient’s usual GP, with some exceptions for services provided by GPs with special interests upon usual GP referral.
The RACGP’s submission to the Australian National Audit Office’s (ANAO) audit of the expansion of telehealth services outlines several challenges the new Government must face head on to improve our telehealth system. This includes learning from mistakes made in implementing telehealth services and making longer telephone consultations a permanent fixture of Medicare.
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