Poor digital connectivity affecting health in the bush

Internet and digital technology should be disaster proof and more reliable for rural Australians who are missing out on e-health and telehealth due to poor digital connectivity.

The AMA says poor digital connectivity is affecting the health of rural Australians and preventing rural doctors from providing quality digital healthcare in rural and remote Australia.

With flooding and other climate disasters continuing to affect rural communities, a new AMA position statement calls on the government to enhance the resilience of telecommunications infrastructure to natural disasters.

It says regional, rural and remote Australians often struggle to access the health services that urban Australians see as a basic right. These inequalities have led to lower life expectancy, worse outcomes on leading health indicators, and poorer access to care compared to people in major cities.

As mainstream healthcare becomes increasingly technology-based and requires more and faster broadband services to operate, there is a real risk that regional, rural and remote areas of Australia will be left further and further behind.

“We’re calling on the government to provide good quality, affordable, and reliable high-speed internet access to rural communities that people in cities have as a matter of course,” Professor Robson said.

Dr Ian Kamerman, chair of the AMA’s Council of Rural Doctors and a GP practicing in Tamworth, said telehealth has been a real boon for medical care in rural areas, enabling easier access for patients to their doctors but the lack of infrastructure has meant the telehealth experience is far from seamless.

“Many patients don’t have the capability to connect to their doctor using video. Even when they do have the right phone, many patients are unable to afford a plan that has enough data to allow a video connection. After clearing those hurdles, I still find consultations are unsuccessful due to poor connectivity, with patients moving between rooms or outside to continue the conversation.”

The main calls to government in the AMA Position Statement:

• ensuring digital platforms can accommodate developments in information and communications technologies and provide digital connectivity through suitable combinations of fibre, mobile phone, wireless, and satellite technologies
• ensure broadband services are reliable and affordable for all communities, business and services throughout the country (government policies play a tremendous role in bringing internet access to remote regions)
• consider and implement recommendations of the 2021 Regional Telecommunications Review and adopt recommendations 2, 6, 9, and 12 which relate to:
  • multi-year connectivity investment
  • NBN Co whole-of-system upgrades to regional fixed wireless networks and undertake measures to increase the accuracy and transparency of mobile network quality and coverage information, including network congestion
  • remove data charges for low income and income support recipients in regional, rural and remote Australia accessing all state, territory and federal government services, to improve the affordability for these users     
• identify the black spots and marginal areas that are uncovered by broadband networks through mapping and prioritise those areas when expanding NBN infrastructures
• create universal unmetered online access to government, hospital and health services for people and businesses in rural and remote areas.

Read the AMA’s scoping review for better digital connectivity to improve rural healthcare.

Read the federal government’s recommendations and its review into Regional Telecommunications.