Telehealth services have existed for several years, often servicing remote communities but now it's becoming common practice.
Instant Scripts, a phone-based doctor service, was receiving about a hundred calls a day before the coronavirus outbreak. Now it's receiving more than a thousand.
Dr Asher Freilich, who runs the service, says many of those new calls relate to mental health as people are isolated from friends and family.
‘’One of the unintended consequences of isolation is a spike in depression, a spike in anxiety, a spike in a sense of vulnerability, a spike in loneliness and what we are noticing is a large volume of mental health-related consultations’’ he noted.
But for some general practitioners, like Dr Qudsia Hasnani, providing a diagnosis without a physical examination is hard to get used to.
‘’To look see, feel, observe and examine hands-on, I feel like the consultation is incomplete if I haven't examined the patient properly’’ she stressed.
Dr Hasnani is a GP who speaks Hindi, Urdu and some Russian and says community doctors who usually offer multilingual services are still able to do so via telehealth.
But when this is not available, accessing translation services on telehealth can be difficult, so this task often falls to family members.
‘’Considering that we have to keep the social distancing, then only the family members who are living at the same facility should be allowed to interpret. Having an interpreter from outside walking into their homes and then helping them out is putting both parties at risk’’ she said.
The federal Department of Health says doctors can access the Translating and Interpreting Services operated by the Department of Home Affairs.
You can stay up to date on coronavirus in your language at sbs.com.au/coronavirus.
