Personal protective equipment (PPE): Concerns about shortages of PPE across the country, but
particularly in rural, regional and remote areas, have been well-documented. While many of these
issues were addressed fairly early on, concerns remained for some time about a lack of PPE being
made available in many areas outside the major cities, including in Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander communities. A stable supply of PPE is necessary across the entire country to ensure that
rural, regional and remote areas are well-equipped to respond to future pandemics without putting
health care workers at risk. Even as of late May, there are still some groups of health care workers,
particularly among the allied health professions, reporting inadequate access to PPE.
Telehealth: The Alliance welcomes the rapid expansion of Medicare Benefits Schedule items for
telehealth consultations. While access has now been expanded, there were initially gaps in the items
that were available, such as for allied health professionals. We advocate for the continuing
availability of telehealth items after the pandemic is over, albeit with safeguards in place to ensure
that big health providers from metropolitan areas do not monopolise patients in rural, regional and
remote areas at the expense of local providers. We also want to ensure that patients and clinicians
in these areas have access to training and support to use telehealth services, as well as an affordable
and high-quality broadband connection…