The new world of telehealth is proving a positive experience for medical clinics and their patients, according to Northside Health Clinic in Coffs Harbour.
Phone and video appointments enable patients to follow social distancing guidelines while still receiving quality health care, said Karen Jackson, practice manager.
“The patient feedback so far has been universally positive,” Ms Jackson said.
To help demystify video consultations for their patients, the clinic has posted a video showing how the process works.
In the video, Ms Jackson and GP Dr Rosie Ross take patients through some simple steps. These steps are the same for most health clinics offering the newly instigated ‘healthdirect video appointments’.
“We found that the Federal Government’s healthdirect platform, which has been implemented across many Australian health clinics, took us only a few days to set up and was relatively easy to arrange through the North Coast Primary Health Network’s (NCPHN) Digital Health Team,” Dr Ross said.
“Our doctors feel confident in using the system as it is a secure platform for conducting patient consultations. A big plus is that it is very user friendly.
“Understandably, some patients initially showed reluctance to engage with the technology. But once they started using the system, we received highly positive feedback.
“We decided to do the short instructional video for our patients so that they could see just how easy it is to engage with telehealth.”
NCPHN is helping primary care service providers from Port Macquarie to Tweed Valley to use the healthdirect video platform. General practices and service providers can request access via: www.hnc.org.au/coronavirus-information#healthdirect