Why ?

It is absolutely frustrating when the government announces a smart new health initiative, puts it in place and it works brilliantly - and then for no logical reason decides to pull the plug and withdraw it from vast numbers of people.    From this coming January,  "Telehealth" will no longer be available to the people of the Illawarra, nor to all those living  a similar distance from Sydney.

The aim of Telehealth was to encourage patients to get the expert attention provided by specialists in coordination with their general practitioner.   It enabled GP's to setup a conference with a specialist from within their own consulting room, using a video link to deliver sight and sound.   The GP would conduct any physical tests required by the specialist and with the coming of NBN's broadband - this seemed to be the way medicine would be delivered in the twenty-first century.

The benefits were obvious.   The patient was more relaxed in the familiar surroundings of his GP's rooms. Removing the necessity of many hours travelling to Sydney and return would make more patients likely to agree to see a specialist - and this was touted as one of the main reasons for expanding Telehealth on a national basis.

The linking of patients with specialists by way of their GP's attracted a Medicare payment and it seems that this must be the reason for the cutback.   Illawarra patients will be excluded from January, unless they are part of an Aboriginal  Medical survey or are residents in aged care facilities.

This will impact on certain members of the public more heavily than others.   The old and infirm and those who do not drive will be reluctant to undertake a train journey which will probably include a bus interchange to get to a specialists rooms in Sydney.   The whole impact of modern medicine is to get patients checked earlier to prevent rather than merely try and cure diseases.   This flies in the face of the advertising that health pays to persuade people to use the health system as a preventive measure.

There is little point in GP's handing out referrals to specialists if they know that their patient will not take the matter further.    Telehealth had all the advantages of combining the efforts of patient, GP and specialist to deal with emerging health problems - and in many cases - to prevent them advancing to the stage where expensive hospital care became involved.

This was an initiative that was brilliant - and it was working well.    Many will be asking why we are walking away from a progressive idea ?