Coffs Coast Health Sector Blog

Archive for the ‘Initiatives’ Category

NBN Enabled Telehealth Pilots Program

The $20.6 million NBN Enabled Telehealth Pilots Program (‘the Program’) is a new government initiative in response to the Government’s Digital Economy Goal for health and aged care (see below).

The Program will provide funding to successful proposals for pilot projects to develop and deliver telehealth services to NBN-enabled homes with a focus on aged, palliative or cancer care services, including advance care planning services. By providing better access to health services to homes within NBN early release sites, the Program will investigate and demonstrate opportunities for the extension of telehealth services in the future and the business case for doing so.

The aim of the Program is to develop and trial services which demonstrate how, for example:

• Telehealth services can be delivered to the home in new and innovative ways, enabled by the high speed, reliable broadband provided by the NBN;
• Health services can become more accessible, in regional, rural, remote and outer metropolitan areas;
• Health related transport needs can be reduced;
• Consumers can collaborate and communicate with their carers and health service providers to improve quality of care and health outcomes;
• A reduction in unnecessary hospitalisation;
• Telehealth services are scalable and able to provide an increased volume of care without a corresponding increased cost;
• Location dependent or regional health workforce skills shortages may be mitigated;
• Use of the infrastructure may increase healthcare access and reduce social isolation; and
• Communication during health emergencies could be improved.

The NBN will provide a platform that allows homes, doctors’ surgeries, pharmacies, clinics, aged-care facilities and allied health professionals to connect to affordable, reliable, high-speed and high-capacity broadband. This represents a major opportunity to improve the way healthcare is delivered in Australia.

Coffs Harbour City Council has submitted an application to the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing for the pilot phase of this grant program.

42 LGAs were selected and invited to apply, with the opportunity for up to 12 of those LGAs to serve as ‘learning-by-doing’ models to inform the on-going roll-out of the initiaitve.

Council’s proposal entitled Get REAL Healthy! project is specifically aimed at engaging Youth and Over 45s as they represent a high proportion of the Coffs Harbour population and good opportunities for intervention.

The objectives of the grants and our program are to:

• Increase awareness of and participation in healthy living (dietary, physical, lifestyle) activities by youth not in the workforce.
• Increase awareness of an participation in healthy living (dietary, physical, lifestyle) activities by older people not in the workforce.
• Develop an ongoing network of partner organisation to ensure maximum utilisation of existing resources and extend the reach of the program.

If successful, the application will be implemented in partnership with a number of government and non-government organisations including:

• North Coast Area Health Service
• Mid North Coast Division of General Practice
• Lintan Health Weight Loss Program
• CHESS
• Coffs Coast Community College
• Headspace MNC
• North Coast Youth Career Connections