Warrnambool and Camperdown hospitals get virtual emergency department booths

The Victorian Virtual Emergency Department (VVED) launched in late 2022 to provide around the clock free, specialist medical care for anyone with non-urgent illnesses or injuries, all from the comfort of their own home.

While in a physical emergency department non-urgent patients are naturally pushed to the back of the queue and sometimes have to wait for hours to be seen, in the VVED it usually takes less than 15 minutes to be assessed by a nurse and another 15 to see a specialist emergency doctor.

The whole operation is run from a dedicated area in Melbourne's Northern Hospital, staffed by emergency department doctors and nurses to provide the same level of clinical expertise a patient would receive in a physical hospital.

SWH sees the service as an important option to take pressure off the physical emergency departments in Warrnambool and Camperdown.

It has decided to create special telehealth booths in each hospital's ED where patients can dial in for a consultation with the VVED instead of waiting to be seen by a local doctor.

A SWH spokesperson said the Camperdown Hospital booth opened to the public at the start of May, while a booth at the Warrnambool Base Hospital would be up and running by the end of the month.

Emergency department operations manager Sue Anderton said the response to the VVED had been overwhelmingly positive.

"A number of our own staff members used the VVED over the summer holiday period and were blown away with the standard of care provided," Ms Anderton said.

"People were able to obtain scripts, imaging and blood test referrals generally within 20 minutes and then move on with their lives."

Hamilton nurse Rebecca Cameron used the service recently when she had COVID-19 and started feeling seriously ill.

"When I registered my COVID result with the government they sent me a whole lot of links and the VVED option was there," she said. "At about 3am I was feeling really unwell and was thinking 'do I go to hospital or not'."

Ms Cameron said she was glad she chose a virtual consultation.

"You can sometimes sit in hospital for hours but I only waited about 15 minutes to be seen and I was snuggled up in bed the whole time," she said. "It was so convenient at 3am when going out to the hospital is the last thing you want to be doing."

Ms Cameron said she was seeing more and more people come into the Hamilton ED with minor problems as the shortage of general practitioners pushed patients into the hospital system.

"There are already things like Nurse-on-Call out there but nine times out of 10 they tell you to go into ED anyway," she said.

"For people with minor but urgent issues the VVED is going to be so much more helpful."

Ms Anderton said the new service wasn't meant to replace SWH's physical EDs, but it would help keep them free for emergencies.

"It's important that people understand that our emergency department is still here, and will always be available for anyone who needs us, the VVED is simply designed to complement our service," she said.

To access the Victorian Virtual Emergency department, simply visit vved.org.au and click on "Are you a patient".