It’s 8pm on a Friday night, your GP surgery has shut for the weekend and one of the kids has just started coughing.
It’s the heart-dropping moment many a parent across Australia has faced, knowing that the much-needed script for croup medication or antibiotics is out of reach for the next few days.
“When I worked in hospitals I spent time in Emergency and traditionally after 7pm there’s an influx of patients who don’t have super life-threatening conditions but they still need to be attended to,” Dr Vishnu Gopalan tells Yahoo Lifestyle.
The lack of basic after-hours health care is clearly a problem for patients and doctors alike and it was one of the reasons Dr Gopalan decided to start a telehealth service, Hola Health, with GPs available 24/7 for patients across Australia.
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“I’d worked happily in clinics as a GP but I’d always wanted to do something in the telehealth space,” the Perth-based doctor said.
And the after-hours problem wasn’t the only reason.
To find out if you’re eligible for bulk-billed Hola Health appointments on Medicare click here.
Travelling to see a GP can be a problem
Helping people in remote locations was also a driver as after working across West Australia Dr Gopalan had seen the health issues people faced there.
“I spent a lot of time as a locum in rural areas and I saw first hand how difficult it is to get care,” he said.
“People had to drive a long way [to a GP] and there was also no good continuity of care.
“They would be served by different locums and some weeks wouldn’t have a doctor at all.”
Telehealth appointments mean Aussies don’t have to travel to see the GP when sick. Picture: Hola Health
Travelling for even fifteen minutes and then sitting in a waiting room full of other sick people for 30 minutes is also not a great use of anyone’s time.
It means after years of treating people in more traditional settings Dr Gopalan decided to move into a new area and, in September 2019 he set up Hola Health.
His new telehealth service offers many bulk-billed appointments and aims to get patients on a call with a doctor within 15 minutes.
The service is free after-hours on weekdays, most of Saturday and every Sunday or public holiday.
There are some cases where there is a fee. You can find the details here.
Healthcare for modern life
The aim of Hola Health is convenience; perfect for time-poor patients or families who are juggling the stresses of modern life.
“There’s generally such a sense of gratitude when you help these patients,” the doctor said.
“When you can send a script to them in an SMS there’s genuine surprise – they say, ‘oh it’s this easy,’. As a doctor, that is a melting moment for me.”
As well as managing the business Dr Gopalan still works around 12 hours as a GP on the platform alongside doctors from all over the country.
The aim of Hola Health is convenience with certified Australian doctors. Picture: Hola Health.
“It’s easy for doctors to adopt,” he said
“Typically, a GP works three or four days, but this platform is very simple to use and allows them to unlock some of their spare time.”
He explained why he has so many Australian GPs available.
The calls are generally done via video and he said they only switch to voice call if there’s terrible internet, like in some rural areas.
“98 per cent of calls are video,” he said.
“Telehealth mirrors face-to-face practice and 70 per cent of calls are about a one-off episode like a UTI, tonsillitis, food poisoning, things that can be solved quite easily.
“Early intervention leads to a better outcome so it’s good that patients don’t have to wait from Friday to Monday to see a GP.
“Instead, we can get them antibiotics and by Monday they might be 50 per cent better.”
The face of the future
The only limitation of telehealth is the fact that patients can’t be thoroughly examined.
But in the case of a complex health problem, the doctors at Hola Health will guide people down the appropriate channels and suggest they see a GP.
“The best health outcome is face-to-face but sometimes you want the second best for convenience and time saving and telehealth is a good second best,” Dr Gopalan said.
“This second best is also not that distant to the best.”
He also believes this is where health care could be going in future.
“There are companies trying to develop blood pressure machines that work through the camera lens of the phone,” he said.
“Things like this are two to five years away.”
It will make telehealth an even more appealing option and seeing a GP, in any form, will still be better than doing it yourself with AI.
Dr Gopalan is not sitting still either.
He has more plans for Hola Health in future.
“Hola was born because we genuinely saw the problem in the community and we want to solve other pain points too,” he said.
To find out if you’re eligible for bulk-billed Hola Health appointments on Medicare click here.