Coromandel residents now have access to more specialist services without having to travel to Waikato Hospital.

Thames Hospital has recently trialled its first Telehealth consultations with paediatrician Dr John Goldsmith.

Recently paediatrician Dr John Goldsmith and Waikato Hospital staff beamed themselves into the Thames Hospital via the Waikato DHB's new Telehealth system, which is similar to Skype. Photo: Supplied

Goldsmith used a webcam to transmit himself to a computer in the room with the patients and vice versa.

The system is similar to common technologies like Skype and FaceTime but is designed for the Waikato DHB to comply with patient privacy standards.

Thames Hospital Outpatients and Administration manager Rodger Clark say this will reduce travel time for rural patients and give them greater access to specialist opinions.

'The step after that is to do a clinic from Hamilton,” says Rodger. 'The longer term goal is for some clinics to be able to be run in the town of the patient.

'For example, a patient can go to room in Whitianga and have a consultation with their specialist in Hamilton.”

Rodger says the patients will always be physically seen by a health practitioner and the service will only be used for services and consultations where it is deemed safe.

NZ Telehealth Forum deputy chair Dr Ruth Large says telehealth will be used for outpatient services to connect health workers across the district for planning and strategy meetings, and for specific acute health care.

Thames Hospital will receive a portable telehealth cart which will allow doctors in Waikato Hospital to do virtual rounds with patients in rural hospitals.

'At the moment we have a geriatrician that visits once a week and she has eight patients here under her care,” says Ruth. 'Hopefully what this means is that she can see patients more frequently and do rounds with them by utilising the technology.”.

The driver for the project was the incentive to give patients living rurally better care.

Ruth adds: 'Over the last five years some of our patients travelled for hours for a 10-15 minute consultation.

'And they may not even have hands laid on them by a doctor; it is just a discussion and a look at blood tests.”

The hope is eventually acute services, like the mobile cart, will assist smaller emergency departments with complex cases by connecting specialist doctors at Waikato Hospital with those in rural communities.