While Australia has built one of the most revered healthcare sectors in the world, not all of its citizens can easily access the system.
Many people believe it favours those living in urban areas, and the lack of basic medical amenities in rural communities has reinforced that notion.
Decades ago, a Yuggeera woman named Emily Smale lived a life of service that laid the foundations for a new era in rural Australia.
She was a midwife who once swam across a flooded river to deliver a baby, and her dedication to serving her community carried through generations.
Smale’s descendants helped build the roads and airstrips that linked remote parts of the country during World War II. Their work stitched together the physical pathways that allowed rural communities to participate in the life of the nation.
More than a century later, experts such as Joshua Mundey says Australia must now build a new kind of highway, grounded in technology and trust.
The managing director and chief executive officer of Visionflex Group believes the country’s healthcare system was never designed to work for rural communities.
A System Built for Cities
Almost seven million people live in rural or remote Australia. They grow the nation’s food, power its mines, support its industries and preserve its oldest cultures.
However, these communities have the highest number of illnesses and the poorest access to quality care. They are forced to live with a health system that delivers significantly less than what Australians in the big cities are more accustomed to.
According to Mundey, the life expectancy in many remote communities is more than a decade shorter than that of their city counterparts.
They also ‘experience four times the rate of avoidable death, and receive $1,090 less in healthcare funding per person, and Mundey believes that is due to ‘structural bias’.
This disparity exists because the system was not built for people living far from urban areas where quality hospitals, clinics and specialist centres are located.
The healthcare system in rural areas is lagging behind its city counterparts in many ways. Funding is uneven, infrastructure is weak or outdated, and there are not enough medical professionals to meet the increasing demand for care.
The strain on the healthcare system means General practitioners (GPs) are taking on more than they can handle, with RACGP’s Health of the Nation Report showing that GPs deliver 172 million consultations each year.
Many of them are exhausted, and people who live far from cities often have to take a day off work, travel for hours and spend more money just to see a doctor.
How Telehealth is Helping Rural Communities Access Healthcare More Easily
Australia was among the first nations to adopt telehealth during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Telehealth has subsequently exploded in Australia, with providers flooding the market. Companies such as DoctorsOnDemand have become major players in the future architecture of rural healthcare.
According to this comprehensive DoctorsOnDemand review, patients can easily access qualified medical professionals based on their individual needs.
Telehealth enables patients in rural areas to connect with GPs through secure video consultations, helping them to access healthcare services remotely.
Virtual care has become a reliable alternative for rural patients, giving them a chance to speak with specialists who may otherwise be out of their reach.
But rural communities have known for a long time that not all telehealth services are created equal. A low-quality video call or a phone appointment cannot replace proper clinical care.
Trust has also been a major barrier in remote regions. Many patients are not jumping at the chance to engage with virtual care because of their past experiences.
What happened at Katanning was a cautionary tale for rural patients. When they first got access to telehealth, the service was unfit for purpose.
However, when nurses started using clinical-grade virtual care technology, attendance at appointments increased by a staggering 80 percent.
There are several other examples like that across the country, but the bottom line is that virtual care becomes more than a convenient option when the right tools are in place.
Mundey believes it’s ‘the most effective way to deliver world-class healthcare that has otherwise been out of reach for far too long’.
