Locals in a South Gippsland town have branded an expansion of telehealth services in their hospital's urgent care centre "a joke", amid concerns about the reliability of care.
Patients presenting to Leongatha Hospital's urgent care centre after-hours, can only access telehealth with a doctor from Latrobe Regional Hospital or Melbourne, unless they are seriously unwell.
Previously, telehealth was only used in less serious cases.
Leongatha resident Brenton Williams said the change was a "joke" and has upset the community.
"You might as well just drive the half hour to Wonthaggi and get proper help," Mr Williams said.
"Most of the time you go there after-hours, because you're actually really sick, like you don't go up there because you got a runny nose or something like that."
He said the centre allowed people to receive urgent care locally without needing an ambulance, and should be transformed into an emergency department.
The nearest emergency department is at Wonthaggi Hospital, about 30 minutes away.
"They go and spend millions of dollars doing a brand-new hospital with all the flashy stuff in it and they don't spend the money to fill it and have proper doctors there," Mr Williams said.
Low demand for urgent care
But Gippsland Southern Health Services chief executive Chris Trotman, who manages Leongatha Hospital, said there was not enough demand for a 24-hour service.
When a patient arrives at the hospital, they are assessed and triaged by a nurse between Category 1 to 4, the first being patients who require immediate treatment, and fourth being patients who require treatment within two hours.
On-call general practitioners will be called into the hospital for Category 1 patients as well as Ambulance Victoria if the patient needs to be transported to an emergency department.
Patients within other categories receive medical care from the nurse with direction from a doctor via telehealth.
Ms Trotman said the urgent care centre received between 10 and 12 presentations per day.
"But even if we did have the demand, we certainly don't have the workforce and we don't have the funding to do it because urgent care is not funded like an emergency centre," Ms Trotman said.
Respite for doctors
Leongatha has a growing population of almost 6,000 people but Rural Doctors Association of Victoria president Rob Phair said the move was necessary to protect doctors.
"When you have rapid growth in population, you have major challenges with infrastructure and health workforce, where you're constantly playing catch up," Dr Phair said.
"Certainly, the aim is not to have a reduction in service, and certainly not in the community where the population is growing, but you have to work out a way of protecting the health care workers who provide after-hours services.
"The benefits are that local doctors will not be as exhausted and will be able to provide better care during daylight hours."
