Letters to the Editor
Telehealth champions
Babies at Bentley
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To the best of our knowledge there is a commitment to retaining Bentley maternity services for another year, thereafter to be reviewed.
As a telehealth advocate the Medical Forum article interested me (Where to Telemedicine, July edition). The consistent theme is that Telehealth is emerging despite government assistance rather than as a result of it. The opportunities telehealth presents to reduce costs, improve efďŹ ciencies and most of all provide high quality health care for disadvantaged Australians is being delayed because of a paucity of effective government assistance. In collaboration with some outstanding private and not for proďŹ t organisations we have proven the beneďŹ ts of telehealth to the elderly in aged care facilities and to children with ear disease in remote communities. Hard work has overcome all the technical and clinical obstacles to delivering high quality health care – chronic disease models of care with collaboration between primary care CLINICIANSĂĽANDĂĽSPECIALISTS ĂĽ$ESPITEĂĽTHIS ĂĽPOORĂĽ funding makes them non-viable for private/ not for proďŹ t clinicians and organisations. Enormous ďŹ nancial beneďŹ ts reaped by the federal and state governments are not being returned to the clinicians involved. One example replaced an ENT specialist own to remote communities in the Kimberley with telehealth consultations. High quality video conferencing can now be delivered via satellite internet and the bandwidth can be purchased hourly, making it cost-effective. The net saving of this example was thousands of dollars but the federal and state government do not fund the additional band-width to make this work.
2ECENTüMEDIAüCOVERAGEüHASüSUGGESTEDü imminent closure of the Bentley Hospital Maternity Unit. This has resulted recently in LESSüREFERRALSüFROMüLOCALü'0S ü (OWEVER üSHOULDü"ENTLEYüCLOSE üTHEüEXTRAü ü maternity patients would overwhelm KEMH and Armadale Hospitals. As well, the new maternity unit at Fiona Stanley does not have the capacity to deal with this load (due to high risk referrals and patients from Kaleeya’s closure). Bentley continues to provide a maternity service for low risk patients with midwife and general practitioner deliveries, specialist obstetrician involvement, epidurals and seven day caesarean and anaesthetic cover. Antenatal care is provided at the hospital and where necessary by bulkbilling general practitioners. 2EFERRALSüATüAROUNDü üWEEKSüGESTATIONüAREü WELCOMEDüFROMü'0S Dr Greg Caddy, GP Obstetrician, Mead Medical, Kalamunda ED. Bentley Health Campus does 1,100 deliveries a year. Dr Aseel Alkiaat (O&G specialist and Head of Dept), is backed by GP Obstetricians who are accredited to do caesarians (except *) – Dr Alison Philpott, Dr Julia Marcello, Dr Ann Lewis, Dr Karvi Soma, Dr Tom Matthews, Dr Meng Foo, Dr Stuart Prosser, Dr Greg Caddy* – and O&G specialists Dr Vincent Lee, Dr Gordon Das, and Dr Jacques Pretorius.
'OVERNMENTSĂĽNEEDĂĽTOĂĽRECOGNISEĂĽTHEĂĽTELEHEALTHĂĽ champions that already exist and fund their successes, not pour money into new COMMERCIALĂĽVENTURESĂĽ LIKEĂĽTHEĂĽ0#%(2 ĂĽTHATĂĽAREĂĽ likely to fail at great cost to all.
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Dr Michael Watson, Public Health Physician
Thanks for seeking our views [How Transparent is AGPAL? July edition].
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We have no comment to make on the matter.
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Mr Mark Metherell, Communications Director, Consumers Health Forum of Australia ACT ED. The CHF is listed as one of the governing bodies of AGPAL.
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I am responding on BEHALFĂĽOFĂĽ2$!! ĂĽASĂĽTHEĂĽ 2$!!ĂĽNOMINEEĂĽONĂĽTHEĂĽ "OARDĂĽOFĂĽ!'0!,ĂĽSINCEĂĽ The members of the Board are put forward by THEĂĽMEMBERSĂĽOFĂĽ!'0!, ĂĽ the tenure is usually three years with the ability to renominate if that is authorised by the member organisation. I believe most of the Board are members OFĂĽTHEĂĽ!)#$ĂĽANDĂĽ3TEVEĂĽ;#%/ĂĽOFĂĽ!'0!,=ĂĽISĂĽAĂĽ &!)#$ĂĽANDĂĽASĂĽAĂĽ"OARDĂĽ)ĂĽBELIEVEĂĽAREĂĽSTANDARDSĂĽ of governance are high and in accordance with best practice. The remuneration is very modest and is only paid on attendance at meetings. We are acutely aware of the costs of general PRACTICEĂĽANDĂĽ!'0!,ĂĽISĂĽRUNĂĽVERYĂĽEFlCIENTLYĂĽTOĂĽKEEPĂĽ costs to a minimum. The Health Engine initiative is a way of giving back to our loyal clients (i.e. '0S ĂĽANDĂĽITĂĽISĂĽOBVIOUSLYĂĽAĂĽHELPĂĽTOĂĽPATIENTS Dr Sheilagh Cronin, Cloncurry, Queensland ED. We responded to Dr Cronin’s invitation to phone her. She suggested that accreditation and the PIP payments that owed from it were good for general practices. She said the AGPAL board had four face-to-face meetings each year. She had never looked at her proďŹ le on HealthEngine. We pointed out it said she consulted at Montville and Cloncurry in Queensland. At Montville Medical Centre, HealthEngine said she “unfortunatelyâ€? did not list appointments with them and offered up ďŹ ve practices that did within 23.5 km, including one that was bulkbilling and open 7 days (and had 12 favourable patient reviews, including one that mentioned HealthEngine). Dr Cronin said she had sold the Montville practice three years ago and had not consulted there since July 2014.
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.03ĂĽSCRIPTĂĽDATAĂĽMINING $EARĂĽ%DITOR
2% ĂĽ-EDICINE)NSIGHTĂĽnĂĽTHISĂĽGOVERNMENTĂĽFUNDEDĂĽ agency is unilaterally collecting data from practices. It is paying practice principals to join their PRACTICEĂĽDATAĂĽTOĂĽTHEIRĂĽPROGRAMĂĽ RUNĂĽBYĂĽ.03 ĂĽ so it must be good!), which it accesses via the practice server after hours to download noncontinued on Page 6
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4 | AUGUST 2015
MEDICAL FORUM