Delivering and accessing palliative care
The Agency for Clinical Innovation (ACI) has developed an animation to help local health districts and specialty health networks inform patients, families and carers about the role and benefits of using virtual care in end of life and palliative care.
Virtual care complements face-to-face care and safely connects clinicians with patients while they remain comfortable at home. If attending a face-to-face appointment is difficult, virtual care can help ensure timely access to specialist palliative care.
Virtual care also lets loved ones, carers and other healthcare providers participate in the appointment (if they can’t be with the patient in person). Watch and share the video below and from our website.
Spotlight on a virtual clinical pharmacy service
The Western NSW Local Health District’s virtual clinical pharmacy service has shared their virtual model of care as part of our Spotlight on virtual care series. Explore all 16 models of care shared as a part of the series.
Engaging with consumers
The ACI facilitated a consumer representative workshop on 28 April to identify what consumers need to understand and advocate for the use of virtual care in the health system.
The seven consumer representatives said they:
- were all confident speaking about virtual care
- felt greater transparency and information is needed about what is funded and supported by the government
- would like to better understand what the future holds for virtual care and what each local health district’s plans are
- need to understand the bigger picture to be able to support and contribute to discussions around virtual care
- want the basics of virtual care to be met before it is further rolled out (for example, infrastructure, internet connections and equipment access)
- wanted to highlight the importance of clinician etiquette and training, and the importance of considering patients’ cultural and accessibility needs.
The workshop highlighted that more work can be done to assure our consumer representatives and patients that information is available to clinicians who need support delivering virtual care, such as the guidelines, information and training available on Virtual Care Central.
To provide more support to our consumer representatives, the ACI will develop a dedicated resource to aid their discussions about virtual care.
Virtual Care Exchange Forum
You can attend a forum on the third Tuesday of each month, that supports building capacity, challenges thinking and shares learnings and services that have embedded virtual care into their clinical practice. Anyone interested in attending can register for the events.
If you would like to present at the forum or have a topic you would like addressed, please email the team at aci-virtualcare@health.nsw.gov.au
Our June forum
An experienced panel discussed cultural safety when providing care virtually. More than 300 participants attended and commented on how beneficial the discussion was to help:
- raise awareness of culturally safe practices
- make the place people receive care feel safe and respectful, whether it be in-person or virtual
- engage people in their own healthcare journey.
Learn about upcoming events.