For the last few months, the team at Kyneton Health have been working hard to get Telehealth up and running for patients across the Macedon Ranges - and the timing of the project launch couldn’t be better for our community!

Telehealth is a normal medical appointment between a patient and a medical specialist using video conferencing software and an audio and visual link over the internet, without having to attend a clinic or hospital in person.

Thanks to a Palliative Care Service Innovation and Development Grant from the Victorian Government, patients will now be able to receive medical care from their own home, which is hugely beneficial given the current need to limit social interaction and stay home as much as possible.

Although in its infancy at Kyneton Health, Community Nursing Manager Alison Lowe predicts there will be a large number of applications across the organisation:

“Telehealth was originally set up at Kyneton Health to reduce the number of trips our community palliative patients needed to make to their specialists. With the ongoing Coronavirus restrictions, we anticipate we’ll be able to do so much more with the service - including palliative care, wound care reviews and Aged Care Assessments (ACAS). Our physiotherapists and occupational therapists will be able to see patients in our Transition Care Program (TCP) and we might even be able to do pre-admission assessments, endoscopy consultations or provide bereavement support via Telehealth - the possibilities are endless!"

Patients living in the Hepburn catchment areas of Clunes, Creswick, Daylesford and Trentham have also been able to take advantage of Telehealth, with Central Highlands Rural Health's Community Health team delivering psychology and maternal and child health services.