Juggy Sihota and Martin Dawes: Virtual-care service alleviates access challenges for B.C. doctors and their patients
Credit to Author: Hardip Johal| Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2019 02:00:15 +0000
Five million Canadians are without a primary-care physician. They often end up in hospital emergency rooms with non-emergent issues as they struggle to find care. In other cases, citizens in remote and rural communities have little or no access to care.
Clearly, the status quo isn’t sustainable, and B.C. is looking at ways to address this access issue. So are we.
As part of our commitment to improve health outcomes, Telus launched a new service last spring. Babylon by Telus Health is a free smartphone app, giving Canadians timely access to health information. British Columbians can also have video consultations with locally licensed doctors. This care is integrated into our provincial health system and delivered through virtual technology. It includes follow-ups for lab tests, referrals and general care.
Two groups of patients use the service: those without a family physician and those who have difficulty accessing their doctor, whether for evening, weekend or holiday appointments. It’s an alternative to patients having to use a hospital emergency room. We’re also working to enable virtual care functionality within electronic medical records, so more physicians can deliver this service to their own patients.
The province isn’t unique in its desire to improve access and outcomes. Recently, Ontario announced it is expanding digital and virtual care, recognizing that it will enhance the patient experience; Saskatchewan just released its 20 Actions for 2020 Growth Plan that intends to explore virtual care; and Nova Scotia touts virtual care for making it easier for people to see doctors faster.
Virtual care is making a positive difference: Florence Ann Hulme is a 96-year-old B.C. woman whose physician retired after caring for her for 15 years.
Her son set her up on Babylon, and she wrote to us about her experience. She said she was quickly able to speak to a physician. Tests were ordered, the results were explained during another virtual appointment on her smartphone, her prescription was called into her pharmacy of choice and was available for pickup almost immediately.
Mrs. Hulme isn’t alone. Our customers rate us 4.9/5 on our Babylon service and studies show other Canadians also want this type of access. Last year, the Canadian Medical Association released a survey showing seven-in-10 Canadians “would take advantage of virtual physician visits, and many believe that it would lead to more timely care, convenience and overall care.”
Critics fear there will be fewer physicians in the system as virtual clinics offer primary-care physicians the chance to earn a steady income without having to “run a business.” This is incorrect.
Our virtual-care service offers B.C. physicians, running their own practices, the opportunity to help alleviate access challenges by using technology to work remotely. The service is flexible too, and can increase physicians’ productivity and provide a different life/work balance.
There is no one solution that will solve the crisis of access to primary care. Teams and networks are part of the process, as is virtual care. They all complement and disrupt our current system. New ways of thinking coupled with innovative technology, such as Babylon, are the way forward in enhancing health-care access for Canadians.
Juggy Sihota is Telus’s vice-president of consumer health and Dr. Martin Dawes is a family physician in B.C., and special medical adviser to Babylon by Telus Health.