The New Zealand Government will no longer fund the provision of free telehealth services, including COVID-19 care, as it remains “business as usual” for health providers to deliver in-person services once the pandemic ends.
Te Tāhū Hauora (Health Quality and Safety Commission) recently looked at the impacts of telehealth on quality and safety as part of its latest report.
The rise of Telehealth is now tapering off after gaining global popularity during the pandemic and never becoming mainstream. It is reportedly most prevalent in New Zealand.”[A]“Primary health care has always been delivered primarily through face-to-face appointments,” Te Tāhū Hauora notes.
For example, telehealth never exceeded 20% of primary care appointments during the pandemic in New Zealand, a figure that dropped further to 8% last year.
In the outpatient department, telehealth, all of which is done over the phone, peaked at just 25%, or nearly 90,000, of total appointments in early 2020. By comparison, there were about 260,000 in-person appointments during the same period. Meanwhile, video telehealth peaked at about 7,400 in late 2021, compared with 476,000 in-person appointments.
The report also highlights key barriers to the adoption of telehealth services, including clinician capacity and confidence, and a lack of resources and equipment to support the service.
Te Tāhū Hauora concluded that telemedicine “has yet to prove itself as a sustainable solution for accessing care.” For the health system to truly reap the benefits, Te Tāhū Hauora said, must “better understand who is best suited for telehealth services” and address implementation challenges, particularly integration with in-person assessment and testing.
“For telehealth to be viable, services must consider quality and safety, clinician competence, service availability, and most importantly, client engagement.”
THE BIGGER TREND
Ruth Large, chair of advocacy group New Zealand Telemedicine Forum, recently revealed that the government had cut funding for telemedicine services, including Covid Healthline, as part of changes in the government’s response to COVID-19.
“While the post-pandemic has seen growth among independent, private telehealth providers, most providers in the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors are struggling to maintain momentum as Health New Zealand looks to make telehealth the norm,” she said.
This forum was responsible for establishing the National Telehealth Service in 2015.
The cuts to telehealth funding come as the government also withdraws around $200 million from digital health over the next four years – including Hira. Te Whatu Ora is currently considering what aspects of the Hira programme will go forward. The programme, which is currently building a new national health information platform, finished its first phase of implementation in June.
