Telehealth consultations are becoming the norm as patients opt to speak to their GPs online or over the phone where possible.
Data from Services Australia shows the number of telehealth users jumped from 1.3 million in March to 5.8 million in April this year.
General practitioner Dr Billy Stoupas says telehealth minimises the patient and the medical team’s risks of contracting coronavirus.
But he believes that seniors from multicultural communities aren’t necessarily accessing the free digital health service.
It’s more so the fact that they just didn’t really know it existed. So, a lot of the time we will do follow up phone calls anyway with a lot of our patients, and they really appreciate it but now the fact is we can do it in a more structured way, where they can make an appointment for the doctor to give them a call.
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People in Australia must stay at least 1.5 metres away from others. Check your state’s restrictions on gathering limits.
If you are experiencing cold or flu symptoms, stay home and arrange a test by calling your doctor or contact the Coronavirus Health Information Hotline on 1800 020 080.
