Introduction
To gain an insight into the national impact of Covid-19 on telehealth services, eHealthNews
The number of reported telehealth appointments in August will be higher in Auckland than other parts of the country due to the city’s Level 3 regional lockdown, but all except one DHB is doing more telehealth appointments
contacted all DHBs seeking statistics and case studies.
The arrival of Covid-19 and subsequent national lockdown had a significant impact on the use of telehealth at New Zealand District Health Boards (DHBs). At Alert Levels 3 and 4, the Ministry of Health advised that outpatient appointments should be managed wherever possible via contactless methods such as video or telephone. DHBs worked rapidly to respond to the crisis, leading to a steep rise in telehealth appointments, particularly via phone. A telehealth briefing paper to the Northern DHB board describes a “seismic shift of activity” with a large number of clinicians moving out of hospitals to working from home, as well as the decision to deliver all outpatient clinics remotely to patients outside the hospital environment. Three DHBs were unable to provide any data on telehealth pre-Covid, but the remaining 17 reported doing around 3,300 telehealth consultations per week in a pre-Covid month from November 2019 – January 2020. In April, in the midst of the Level 4 national lockdown, this rose more than tenfold to 34,500 per week. In June-August this year the average weekly number had dropped to around 19,000 per week.
now than before Covid-19 arrived in February this year.
The Ministry of Health has given $7.1m ‘digital enablement funding’ to DHBs to support locally led delivery of telehealth services and digital inclusion and established a digital enablement work programme, “to guide the allocation of further available funding”. DHBs spoken to by eHealthNews say they are assessing their telehealth capability and looking at what support and enablers they need to build a sustainable and quality service for the future.
Special Report written by eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth, editor@hinz.org.nz
Published by HiNZ, exclusively for HiNZ members.
hinz .org.nz
TELEHEALTH OCTOBER 2020 : : 2
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