Health a key consideration in rebuilding regional economies

Speaking on a Regional Institute of Australia webinar on the topic of regional health on Monday, National Rural Health Alliance chief executive officer Gabrielle O'Kane said the federal government's rapid shift to telehealth early in the COVID-19 pandemic showed it could move quickly to protect patients and health workers.

She said surveys from the Royal College of Physicians showed patients felt safer, healthcare felt more accessible and 70 per cent of specialists reported patients were more likely to keep their telehealth appointments.

But Dr O'Kane said face-to-face contact with healthcare professionals was still very important, particularly for patients with cognitive impairments, hearing or sight impediments or language barriers.

She said the same survey results also showed that 28pc of patients reported technical issues with the telehealth systems, while 52pc delayed making an appointment in the first place.

Services for Australian Rural and Remote Allied Health CEO Catherine Maloney said there were similar findings in allied health, where there was a 25pc reduction in Medicare Benefits Scheduling billing during the early months of the lockdown as patients did not attend their usual appointments.

She said some of the roadblocks to telehealth - the majority of which is via telephone despite videoconferencing being the preferred format - were poor connectivity, a higher preference for face-to-face interaction, particularly for physical therapies, and a lack of confidence in the technology, especially among older people.

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Ms Maloney said there were workarounds but these could take time to set up, with the practice having to absorb those extra costs.

Some of these included having someone at the client's end, such as a family member, to help out with the therapy, or even just spending time familiarising the patient with the telehealth technology before the official appointment.

She said at a time when the focus was on economic recovery, it was important that health resources in regions were not disregarded.

"This pandemic has illustrated that the nature of health and the economy are inextricably linked," she said.

Ms Maloney said Allied Health was set to be one of the fastest-growing industries by 2023, with more than 250,000 jobs, including 80,000 in regional Australia, and needed to be considered when looking to rebuild local economies.

"Planning for growth of regional communities without a complementary plan to grow rural health and social services risks exacerbating the significant gap in health outcomes, equity and access between metropolitan and regional Australia," she said.

"The people who need allied health services the most are least able to access them."

Ms Maloney said there were numerous economic benefits to investing in rural health, with it a major local employer but also able to keep people in jobs for longer while good preventative medicine saved on long-term costs.

While the issues of recruiting health workers to regional areas was touched on, with education and improved placements among the suggestions, for south-east Vic-based Alpine Health CEO Lyndon Seys, a local touch was needed.

He said when they discovered they could not fill all the required nursing shifts, they began looking to upskill staff where possible.

"There were people living in our community that wanted to study but couldn't afford to move to study," he said.

He said they initially outsourced the training of enrolled nurses but were soon able to "do it ourselves".