Day by Day

It’s been five days since Auckland went into lockdown level 3 on Sunday night, and the rest of New Zealand went into level 2. It was a relief (albeit with mixed feelings) that Auckland moved to level 2 and the rest of New Zealand to level 1 during Wednesday night. Today the vaccination programme started!

But do these fluctuations in infection at the border and in the community, and the new vaccination programme mean that we don’t need telehealth anymore? I would argue that we need it more than ever. Telehealth is an untapped resource for health care and deserves a lot more exploration. Video and phone appointments/visits with doctors and nurses have been done for decades, all over the world. What’s missing is a clear understanding of how it could work well in general practice (where we go first for health care, where we see our GPs and practice nurses).

Our research explores the consumer’s experience of access to telehealth and how consumers perceive this mode of care delivery going forward. That’s you! We want to hear from you about your experiences via our survey. If you’ve experienced telehealth (video or phone appointments with your family doctor or nurse) any time since March 2020, please complete our consumer survey. If you’re a GP or practice nurse or nurse practitioner and you have provided care via video or phone since March 202, please complete our provider survey.

It will be good to see the back of Covid19 but it looks like we’re learning to live with it. Something we can leverage is our experiences with telehealth, learn how to improve on what it has to offer and what it can do for health care in the future, and use it.

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