Telehealth boom
Virtual healthcare grew by almost 900 per cent at Barwon Health in 2020 amid COVID-19, the organisation has revealed.
Telehealth sessions peaked last August with more than 2300 appointments, and have dropped steadily since eased restrictions have allowed a return to face-to-face consultations, with about 700 this March.
Phone appointments also increased during lockdown periods, rising from 3400 in last April to about 8000 a month from May to October 2020.
Barwon Health was unable to provide local data on how the pandemic had impacted people booking check-ups or coming in for treatment, spokesperson Kate Bibby said.
“During the lockdown months last year, we were aware that some people were delaying their treatment, with fewer people seeking treatment across all triage categories of our emergency department,” Ms Bibby said.
Fired up for technology
Powercor has installed new covered conductor technology to reduce fire risk at Modewarre replacing more than 17 kilometres of powerlines.
The installation is part of a $4.2 million trial to determine if the technology can be rolled out across the network more extensively.
