The Tasmanian Liberal Government continues to implement innovative initiatives so that Tasmanians can get the best care for their specific needs within the community.
Ambulance Tasmania’s Secondary Triage Service – launched in February 2021 – has been assisting patients who dial triple zero but are not needing an emergency ambulance response. The demand for this service – and our health system more broadly has been steadily increasing.
In recognition of this, Ambulance Tasmania has partnered with My Emergency Doctor (MED), an emergency specialist telehealth provider to bolster our existing Secondary Triage service and deliver alternative health care pathways for Tasmanians.
Ambulance Tasmania Secondary Triage clinicians that determine a patient as not needing emergency care and instead would benefit from assessment by a doctor will now be transferred via phone to an Emergency Specialist Doctor at MED to undertake direct clinical consultations as well as provide medical advice, prescriptions and emergency escalations if needed.
My Emergency Doctor’s specialist physicians are all Fellows of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (FACEM) and offers Ambulance Tasmania access to one of the largest pools of qualified experts that have been specially trained to assist in a diverse range of cases via telehealth.
This model is already operating in Victoria and New South Wales with positive results reported.
Importantly, engaging these extra resources to support our Secondary Triage service means we can free up our paramedics and ED staff to care for those in urgent need of care, while continuing to provide more critical care for lower acuity patients and who may not require treatment in an Emergency Department.
Secondary Triage, along with our Police, Ambulance, and Clinician Early Response (PACER) team for mental ill health, and Community Paramedics are just some of the innovative initiatives that the Tasmanian Government has implemented to ensure we can provide quality care in the community while diverting appropriately determined patients away from Emergency Departments to alleviate pressures off our public hospitals.
Since coming to Government in 2014, we have employed an additional 243 FTE at Ambulance Tasmania including the recent delivery of 48 new paramedics, 24 of which are in rural and regional areas.