From Dr Mark Wenitong Acting CEO NACCHO
To all NACCHO members
This is to introduce Dr Suzanne Jenkins
The new manager of the NACCHO Telehealth Support project ( TH1):
As you may already be aware NACCHO is currently undertaking a Telehealth Support Project (TH1) supported by the Department of Health and Aging (DOHA).
Working with your state and Territory affiliate offices through an appointed Working Party, the project will undertake (over 12 months) to produce guidelines, an accredited online training module, and workshop training materials.
As well the project will provide financial and other support to the state and Territory affiliates to undertake training workshops for member services.
The state affiliates will contact you within the next few months to let you know when and where the workshops will be in your state/Territory.
Within the next 3-6 months NACCHO will have established a website and links to the guidelines, training modules and information regarding events in your state.
It will also provide links to a range of other resources including those on the Australian college of Remote and Rural Medicine (ACCRM) website. ACCRM are collaborating with us on this project
NACCHO believes that Telehealth, once established, will provide great benefits to our services and clients and are pleased to be able to work with you to develop proficiency and capacity in this new area of health care delivery.
What is Telehealth?
Telehealth enables consultations between health service providers and their patients to be delivered at a distance. A Telehealth consultation is a consultation which occurs through real time telecommunication systems such as videoconferencing, between a patient and specialist in another location.
This project will equip the health staff of Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHSs) with training and support to allow them to manage and implement Telehealth online video conferencing in their services for their patients.
Once established Aboriginal people’s access to specialists through Telehealth facilitated patient consultations within across Australia will be dramatically improved.
The project operates as part of the Australian Government’s ‘Connecting Health Services with the Future: Modernising Medicare by Providing Rebates for Online Consultations’ initiative.
Telehealth Objectives
There are five main objectives of the program:
Develop customised national telehealth guidelines/principles tailored to the ACCHS’s workforce;
Develop an accredited National Training Module (online) for ACCHS staff;
Develop a national ‘Online Telehealth Orientation Event Management Kit’ for ACCHSs/Affiliates iforthe conduct of State/Territory workshops (see below);
Establish a Virtual Telehealth Community on the NACCHO Communication Network (NCN);
Conduct State and Territory Telehealth Training workshops by funding and supporting NACCHO Affiliates. These will provide training and support to ACCHSs in:
- the installation and usage of teleconferencing equipment;
- undertaking telehealth consultations and claiming Medicare rebates;
- implementation of the above NACCHO guidelines,
- ways to engage existing specialists to offer telehealth services to their ACCHS;
- enhancing access to other specialists providing telehealth services through a national database.
The workshops will also assist in evaluation activities, including data collection for this project.
For further information
Dr Suzanne Jenkins is the Telehealth Support Officer managing this project and would be please to hear from you if you have any queries. She will inform you when the resources become available
Her contact details are below.
Dr Suzanne Jenkins
Telehealth Support Officer
Bolands Centre, 14 Spence St. Cairns 4870 PO Box 5419, Cairns 4870
(07) 40807344 | 0429918934
