Telehealth ready to help parents, babies and young children

Published on 12 June 2020

A trip down to the Royal Children’s Hospital can be long, tiring and costly for young Wimmera families. It’s even more challenging during the current pandemic restrictions.

However the expansion of a telehealth service is now giving more families the chance to see a paediatrician without leaving Horsham.

The BY FIVE Specialist Paediatric Support Partnership is a product of the BY FIVE Early Years Project, an initiative of the Wimmera Southern Mallee (WSM) Regional Partnership. The partnership aims to ensure families with young children across the WSM can access specialist care in their communities.

And while video conferencing appointments have been possible for almost a decade, it is expected a new partnership with the region’s maternal and child health services will see a surge in people benefiting from the convenience of telehealth.

“After months of planning, the idea for a tele-practice project with maternal and child health services came together in February, so by chance we were just getting started when the COVID-19 situation arose. We have been able to amplify the changes we were hoping to make,” said BY FIVE Coordinator Rachel Robinson.

“Some of the barriers we thought we might face have disappeared – tele-practice has become the norm rather than the exception as people have experienced the positive possibilities firsthand.”

As of last month, the project has helped divert several Horsham families from costly paediatric appointments.

Instead they attend the Kalkee Road Children’s and Community Hub where a Maternal and Child Health nurse joins the video conference and works with Paediatrician Dr Billy Garvey, patient and family to help deliver a virtual consultation.

Alice Adams and her daughter Harriet were the first to use the program in Horsham.

Mrs Adams said the most significant benefit was the reduced waiting time.

“Heading down for an in-person appointment would have added an extra three months to that period of uncertainty regarding my baby’s health,” Mrs Adams said.

“It’s much better for your mental health to be able to be seen straight away.

“Having the Maternal Child Health Nurse there beside me made it much more comfortable. She was able to ask the doctor questions during the consultation which was really useful.

“Then afterwards she made herself available to talk more about what the doctor had said.”

Horsham Rural City Council Maternal Child Health Nurse Melanie Wade said the initiative brought advantages for the Children’s Hub staff too.

“There can be a wait of up to two years to see a Paediatrician at the Royal Children’s Hospital, so we are so fortunate to be able to help our local families access a specialist, in the Medicare-funded health system, with very little wait period,” she said.

“It is also beneficial for myself and my Maternal and Child Health Nurse colleagues to be able to work collaboratively with such a highly skilled and knowledgeable health professional. It definitely provides us with learning opportunities to ensure we are providing the best, most accurate and up-to-date evidence-based information and practice for families in the Wimmera region.

“We have also invited the GPs of families participating in the telehealth consults to attend and be involved – Dr David Wilson from Lister House Clinic participated in a telehealth consult recently. The great thing about this is that Dr Wilson can then provide localised medical follow up, in collaboration with Dr Garvey and the Royal Children’s Hospital,” Ms Wade said.

Dr Garvey has been involved in the By Five project since 2018 and already knows the community well. The commitment of local services has provided funding for Dr Garvey to work with nurses until August with additional funding being sought to extend this arrangement.

WSM Regional Partnership Chair, David Jochinke said BY FIVE emerged from the 2016 and 2017 WSM Regional Assemblies when the community identified the early years as one of its highest priorities.

“This project is aimed at improving the quality and accessibility of paediatric health care for WSM children,” Mr Jochinke said.

“It has been developed to demonstrate that the enhanced use of telehealth facilities in an appropriate model of care is a successful, scalable and sustainable approach that can address current barriers to regional health care.”