MEDIA RELEASE
The Medical Board of Australia will release its updated guidelines for telehealth providers this week, with changes required later this year.
“The Medical Board’s guidelines on telehealth apply to every GP clinic in Australia that provides telehealth consultations, so we agree there is a need for clear, consistent safeguards that are informed by broad industry consultation and international examples of best practice.”
“Asynchronous prescribing is just one of the services provided by InstantScripts. It is underpinned by a sound clinical governance framework, which is best emphasised by the fact that 35 percent of requests for prescription are initially declined and referred to a telehealth consultation.”
“InstantScripts works with around Australian-registered 120 GPs who provide more than 1,000 telephone and video based consultations every day to patients who need access to healthcare. Thousands of these consultations occur after-hours and on weekends when access to bricks and mortar GP clinics is severely limited or unavailable. A large proportion of our patients come from regional and rural communities that lack convenient and affordable primary care options, in addition to patients suffering from mental health conditions.”
Background:
Services like InstantScripts are designed to complement rather than replace a patient’s regular doctor – 78% of patients who use asynchronous services have a regular doctor.
In a recent survey, 91% of patients said they are more likely to be able to maintain their medication regime through access to asynchronous healthcare. About half of InstantScripts patients said there would be occasions where they would have to stop taking their regular medication if access to asynchronous healthcare were not available.
Media contact:
Jessica Ridley
[email protected]
Nancy McDonald
[email protected]
