Andy, who was managing MLHD aged care services, and his wife – a sonographer – found the trip a struggle. Rarely do parents enjoy a 10-hour round trip with two kids under four. They had to take three weeks off work, and living away from home was expensive. But they begrudged nothing. The trip was necessary.
It was a different story when they were asked to attend a follow-up appointment, three months later. Again, they took time off work and travelled five hours each way with their two young children. They felt fortunate to stay at Ronald McDonald House and have a government subsidy contribute to transport costs. But this time the trip didn’t seem necessary.
“It was a 15-minute consult with the doctor, who looked at the scar, asked us how everything was going, charged us a few hundred dollars and sent us on our way,” says Andy, who was left contemplating the cost – not just to his family, but the health system as a whole.
He realised his family could have stayed at home and communicated just as effectively with the specialist via computer with a camera and speaker.
“When the doctor says they want to see you in three months, you just do it,” he says.
“Looking back, I realised I didn’t have the confidence or awareness to ask whether this could be done differently. That was an eye-opener for me.”
That personal experience and new way of thinking was fortuitous, given that Andy went on to lead virtual care within the Murrumbidgee Internal Transformation Team.
He is encouraging all MLHD staff to think about what care they could offer virtually, and he’s asking our patients and consumers to speak up and ask for it.
“The need for face-to-face clinical care is never going to disappear,” says Andy.
“But what are the opportunities for saving families from having to travel, from the expense and the time away? When it comes down to it, sometimes there is no need for them to be there in person.”
Andy, 35, who now has three children, aged four, two and two months, hasn’t always lived with the tyranny of distance affecting access to medical services. He grew up in Sydney where he also worked in allied health and medical radiation services. And he has travelled extensively, working in Scotland, Ireland, Canada and the US, as well as Perth and Melbourne.
Andy’s wife was born in Wagga Wagga, so that’s where they decided to holiday after coming back from America. Their plan was to enjoy time with her family while applying for jobs in Melbourne. But equipped with his Bachelor of Applied Sciences in Radiation Therapy, and a Masters in Health Administration, Andy secured work with MLHD, and has since held management roles in allied health and aged care.
Having set up MLHD’s Regional Assessment Services for Aged Care, which assesses eligibility for entry-level aged care support across the district, he’s aware that people often assume older people won’t be able to work with technology.
COVID-19 inspired changes which proved that wrong. With geriatricians no longer able to travel across the district, a new approach was essential. And now, Andy says MLHD geriatricians offer a great service virtually, particularly out west.
“It means people can get a diagnosis, advice and intervention faster than they would if they waited for a face-to-face assessment, which is great,” he says.
“It may not be perfect, because ideally you would have it face-to-face, but during COVID it was better than nothing.”
He says one silver lining from the COVID-19 cloud is that it changed his whole way of thinking about delivery of virtual care being limited by patients’ abilities, knowledge or experience.
“It’s up to us, as health professionals, to change our thinking, and find ways to make it work, rather than saying it doesn’t work for our client group.”