Media Release - New Zealand's Telehealth Forum funding cut
August 2024
7 AUGUST 2024
MEDIA RELEASE
New Zealand’s Telehealth Forum funding cut
In mid-July the NZ Telehealth Forum, representing over 370 members, was informed by Health NZ – Te Whatu Ora that its contract, and with it the funding, would not be renewed.
Telehealth, or ‘virtual care’ is recognised by Health NZ as a priority to improve accessibility to healthcare for New Zealanders using video, image transfer, phone and other digital media.
Established in 2012, under the ‘better, sooner, more convenient’ healthcare banner of the time, the forum is the key advisory and advocacy group for telehealth in New Zealand, recognised as the national voice of telehealth and with strong international connections.
The forum’s chair, Dr Ruth Large (an emergency and rural hospital doctor), says “This news should not have been a surprise to us, given the current fiscal restraint across the health sector, but our members are still taken aback and disappointed that this organisation supporting a key health system priority of improved access to healthcare has been unsuccessful in retaining funding after more than a decade of service.”
“Although telehealth and virtual care are not a panacea to the likes of health workforce woes, they are a vital form of health delivery that continue to show promise both here and overseas. The failure to fund the telehealth forum will result in further setbacks to improving access to care.”
The funding from Health NZ was used to operate the forum. Its members who are a broad cross-section of health leaders, clinicians, professional colleges, administrators, ICT experts and equity advocates have provided expert advice from the time when telehealth was largely unknown in this country through to supporting the heavy lifting of telehealth in the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
Championing improved and equitable access to healthcare, the forum’s network of sector experts has worked on several initiatives. For example, the concept paper on a Patient Anywhere, Clinician Elsewhere (PACE) model of care that outlines the sector’s views on the benefits and barriers to support the development of virtual hospital models.
Dr Large says, “The PACE model, coupled with the work we’ve done on remote patient monitoring, demonstrates the ability to deliver equitable healthcare no matter where the patient and practitioner are, avoid diagnosis delays and treatment, and assist in meeting healthcare targets.”
Last year, the forum undertook its third successive stocktake of public hospital telehealth delivery that indicated the gains made during the pandemic period are reversing and highlighted an uneven playing field in telehealth delivery across the motu.
Dr Large adds, “We’ve always advocated for an evidence-based approach to telehealth adoption, and we’re concerned about the unintended consequences of what appears to be a fragmented approach that doesn’t bring all the nation together to gain full advantage across the country.”
“We’re not sure what the future will bring but the forum membership is passionate about telehealth’s potential, and we’re determined to find a way to push on with the forum’s work to make sure the efforts of the past 12 years are not lost.”
The forum takes a strong patient-centred approach and is clear that telehealth doesn’t solve everything, but it goes a long way towards enabling care to be more accessible, equitable and affordable, particularly when it comes to the cost of time off work, travel, parking, paid childcare and so on.
“The country’s free healthcare is actually pretty expensive for those needing to access it and this often causes people to forego important health needs that can mean their future healthcare requirements will be much higher, and more expensive for them and the country,” Dr Large says.
ENDS
Editor’s note:
Membership of the NZ Telehealth Forum is free and operational funding has historically been provided by the Data & Digital division of Health NZ. Members provide their time voluntarily with most already having busy day jobs. The Health NZ funding has enabled the coordination and management of work undertaken by the Forum. This has enabled the formation of a strong national and international network of cross-sector experts. The Forum purposely does not have corporate, paid type membership so that it can be completely neutral on the advice provided and the various pieces of work it produces.
The Forum takes an apolitical approach and will work with the government, and Ministers, of the day to support the implementation and use of telehealth as an enabler of improved, more accessible and equitable healthcare services. More information can be found on the Telehealth Forum and Resource Centre website.
Contacts:
Dr Ruth Large (Chair) ruth@telehealth.org.nz
Scott Arrol (Programme Manager) scott@telehealth.org.nz