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Home > Ministers > The Hon Tanya Plibersek MP - Minister for Health > Media Hub > Transcript - ABC Radio 702 with Linda Mottram 9.00 am - Thursday April 5

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PDF printable version of Transcript - ABC Radio 702 with Linda Mottram 9.00 am - Thursday April 5 (PDF 429 KB)

5 April 2012

E&OE

Topic – HealthDirect

Linda Mottram: We're interested in your calls this morning on whether you've used the after-hours GP telephone helpline, what your experiences have been. 1300 222 702.

So nobody likes having to go to a hospital emergency department, of course. It's never pleasant but we go because we have to at times but sometimes you might be in two minds. Is it really necessary to front up to emergency or can someone just tell me over the phone what to do?

We had that situation when our son whacked his face at a skateboard park and it was a little unclear how serious it was, what was going on, and he'd had a pervious injury and so question, question, what to do, what to do, tried to get into the local doctor, it was a bit difficult. You know, maybe in that sort of circumstance you've had a similar experience and maybe in that sort of circumstance the after-hours GP helpline has been useful for you. 1300 222 702.

Have you used it and what's it been like?

Well, the idea behind setting it up was of course to try to get people out of emergency departments when they're going there unnecessarily but a report in the Emergency Medicine Journal suggests that it has been a failure and may have actually increased pressure on emergency departments.

Well, in the Hunter area a similar but locally run service has been operating since 2003. Dr Mark Foster is the CEO of the Hunter Urban Medicare Local which used to be called GP Access and Mark joins me on the line. Thanks for your time this morning, Doctor.

(This first caller interview has been edited out to keep the transcript shorter. For a copy please contact Simon Crittle at Minister Plibersek's Office.)

Caller Ross: Hello, how are you?

Linda Mottram: Good thanks. What's your story here?

Caller Ross: I had a little girl that was doing an imitation of Linda Blair, and we were really worried, it was late at night, and instead of traipsing off to the hospital to wait around for a few hours, I rang up the health line, and got some very good advice what to do, what to look out for, and yes, so…

Linda Mottram: So was this a high temperature induced condition, or something, was it?

Caller Ross: No, just something that didn't agree with her…

Linda Mottram: Oh, right.

Caller Ross:: …I think - they're all nurses, and just temperature, what it was, as long as you're pretty clear and concise with them, they give you very - I found the information very worthwhile, and saving straining the public health system.

Linda Mottram: Lovely, okay, good, yeah, thanks very much for that, Ross, glad that worked out well for you.

Vincent, what's your experience of these services?

Caller Vincent: Oh, excellent, we've had one direct experience, my wife cut her leg in the yard, and it was a public holiday, there were no local doctors available, we were aware that the local hospital would have been full, rang the health line, we got a nurse on the line, she advised for example that she didn't have to have her tetanus shot straight away, she could wait for at least 24 hours. Now that was - that enabled us not to go to the hospital, and clog the hospital up, which we would have normally done, we would have hopped in the car, driven to the hospital, and spent time in the hospital.

The second case was to do with a relative, her child got a temperature, rang the line, and got good advice, no need to go to the hospital.

But here's one of the things that I have picked up. The local people around us, many of whom are elderly, do not know about it.

Linda Mottram: Right.

Caller Vincent: It hasn't gone out there, the people just don't know. I don't know what's wrong with this Government, but it doesn't communicate its good things.

Linda Mottram: Yes, OK, interesting point, Vincent, thanks very much for that…

Caller Vincent: Yes.

Linda Mottram: …some good experiences, but something there that the Government can improve on, is communicating to the community that these services are available.

Denise, from Glenbrook.

Caller Denise: Hello, yes, hello, Linda.

Linda Mottram: Hi, what's your experience?

Caller Denise: Well, I had a lovely experience with it, in about August, 2010 I rang up with a searing pain under my - down one side, and got through to HealthDirect, and they went through my symptoms, and I realised that probably I wasn't having a heart attack, she was just so wonderful, and said, go to the emergency within four hours, which I did. And I don't know about not knowing, I got through the post a little sticker to go onto my fridge with HealthDirect…

Linda Mottram: Oh, okay.

Caller Denise: …so I don't know what that man was saying before, that they don't know, but I got it through the post.

Linda Mottram: Oh, well I haven't got one, I wonder what that's about, that's interesting.

Caller Denise: Oh, I don't know, it was a little sticker…

Linda Mottram: Okay, that's an interesting one…

Caller Denise: …but yes, and I don't think those people, those doctors that wrote about that, understand how secure and happy it made me feel, to know these things, I mean, you know - and I just want to say that it would be a tragedy if they sort of tried to stop it.

Linda Mottram: Yeah, no, I don't think the talk is about stopping it, I think it's about nuancing it, perhaps, and making it, you know, getting a bit more of that local content in there, but thanks very much…

Caller Denise: Well, it didn't mean anything to me, they just said, go to your local emergency…

Linda Mottram: Right, yeah, and I guess circumstances…

Caller Denise: so it didn't really…

Linda Mottram: …are all different, aren't they, so in your circumstance…

Caller Denise: Yes, it didn't have to be, it didn't have to be, it didn't have to be local, they just said, you know, within four hours maybe you should go - because it was in the evening…

Linda Mottram: Yeah, yeah. Okay, lovely, thanks very much, Denise.

And Keith is on the line, hello, Keith, what was your experience with it?

Caller Keith: Yeah, g'day, my experience was excellent actually, at the time, my daughter, I think she was about nine months old, and it was midnight, and she'd been crying for hours, and I think vomited earlier, and I was thinking, you know, do I take her down to emergency and stay there for four hours, but I rang them up, and the nurse was really well educated, gave me great advice, and it was a great result, I thought it was really excellent.

Linda Mottram: Fantastic, excellent stuff, thank you very much, Keith.

And Mike from Narrabeen called in to say that he found it useful, he thought he was having a heart attack, and they were able to go through the check list with him.

Linda Mottram: Let's see if we can get a bit more information. The Federal Health Minister is Tanya Plibersek, she's on the line. Minister thanks so much for taking the call.

Tanya Plibersek: It's a pleasure.

Linda Mottram: Now most of our calls have been positive about the helpline, but does it need some tweaking at least?

Tanya Plibersek: Well, look, it's a pretty new service and I think every new service improves over time. I think it is important. You had the fellow on from the Hunter Medicare Local as we roll Medicare Locals out across the country we need to fill some of those after hours gaps.

For many years there's been poor after hours services in many parts of the country and we are investing hundreds of millions of dollars into improving that, but that improvement - information will link in to this phone line.

But the important thing about the phone line is really all of your callers have described exactly what it's there for. If you're not sure whether you need to go into hospital you can get that advice in the first instance from nurses. If it's a more complex problem that you've got you're able to talk to a GP. And anyone - you've spoken to a few parents - anyone who's been a parent, you've got a few other kids asleep in bed, you're worried about one of the children, you're going to get them all out of bed and drive them to the hospital in the middle of the night. A little bit of reassurance on the other end of the phone can make all the difference.

And we think about 30,000 people have been diverted from having to attend emergency departments because they've had this advice on the other end of the phone line, and that number will increase over time as well. It's a very important and valuable service, and it's an option for people, it's not to prevent them from going to hospital, it's not preventing them attending their GP, it's an extra option that they have.

Linda Mottram: Now the - what do you make then of the Emergency Medicine Journal and its comments about the service suggesting that it might have increased pressure on emergency departments?

Tanya Plibersek: Oh, look, I'm a bit perplexed. I don't think they've got any very hard numbers in there, they've certainly - the calculation that, you know, it may have increased pressure, I don't understand how they can say that because when - of course, if someone's - if someone's in a car crash they're going to go to the emergency department, if someone has a terrible accident or they're suddenly very ill or they have a heart attack they're going to turn up in emergency.

We're not trying to prevent or reduce those people going to emergency, what we're trying to do is have an alternative for people who actually don't desperately need emergency care, they just don't have any other after hours medical service. That's the target group for this phone line. So we need to invest in emergency departments, we do need to have not just extra services in emergency and we are putting extra resources into upgrading emergency departments around the country, we're training extra emergency doctors as well. We need to do that completely separately because our emergency departments have been under pressure.

This is a way of helping people who really don't need to be going to emergency or aren't sure whether they need to be going to hospital to avoid it if they don't have to. And it's not an either or, we do need to keep working on emergency.

The other thing to say is it's not emergency departments in isolation within a hospital, what you need is a whole flow of people able to move out of emergency departments, we've got a four-hour target now across the country where we want people either to go - be admitted into a hospital into a proper bed, be discharged, be treated or be referred on. But that needs the whole hospital to be working properly not just the emergency department.

Linda Mottram: Yeah. Minister, thanks so much for your time this morning.

Tanya Plibersek: Pleasure to talk to you.

Linda Mottram:: Cheers. Tanya Plibersek, the Federal Health Minister on the line there.

For more information, please contact the Minister’s Office on 02 6277 7220