The New Zealand government is no longer funding the provision of free telehealth services, including one for COVID-19, as healthcare providers went "business as usual" in providing in-person services following the end of the pandemic.

Te Tāhū Hauora (Health Quality & Safety Commission) recently looked into the quality and safety implications of telehealth as part of its latest report. 

Telelehealth's uptake is now receding after gaining global popularity during the pandemic and never became popular in New Zealand in the first place, according to the report. "[A]t all times, primary care was overwhelmingly dominated by in-person appointments," Te Tāhū Hauora noted.

For example, telehealth never went beyond 20% of appointments in primary care during the pandemic in New Zealand. This further dropped to 8% last year. 

In the outpatient department, telehealth, all done virtually by phone, only peaked at 25% or nearly 90,000 of total appointments in early 2020. In comparison, there were approximately 260,000 in-person appointments in the same period. Meanwhile, video telehealth peaked at about 7,400 in late 2021, compared to 476,000 in-person appointments. 

The report also highlighted major barriers to telehealth adoption, including clinician capability and confidence and the lack of resourcing and equipment to support the service.

Te Tāhū Hauora concluded that telehealth "has not yet proven a sustainable solution to access to care." For the health system to truly reap its benefits, Te Tāhū Hauora said, it has to "better understand who telehealth suits best" and address challenges in implementation, particularly its integration with in-person testing and assessment. 

"For telehealth to be viable, services must consider quality and safety, clinician capability, service readiness and, most importantly, client engagement."

THE LARGER TREND

Ruth Large, chair of the advocacy group NZ Telehealth Forum, recently disclosed that the government pulled funding for its telehealth services, including Covid Healthline, as part of changes to the government's COVID-19 response.

"Whilst post-pandemic has seen growth occurring amongst independent, privately owned telehealth providers, most providers in primary, secondary and tertiary sectors are struggling to maintain momentum amidst the published desire from Health New Zealand for telehealth practice to become the norm," she shared. 

The forum was responsible for the creation of the National Telehealth Service in 2015. 

The telehealth funding cut comes as the government also recalled some $200 million earmarked for digital health over the next four years – including Hira. Te Whatu Ora is now reportedly considering which aspects of the Hira programme will proceed in the future. The programme, which is now seeing the build a new national health information platform, concluded its first phase of implementation in June.