Country Australians are increasingly turning to technology to bypass long delays in seeing a general practitioner (GP) for medical certificates and prescription renewals, as a crackdown on telehealth looms.
Midnight Health, a start-up which offers online medical consultations, electronic prescriptions and pharmacy deliveries, says rural Australians make up 30 percent of its 85,000 customers.
The Brisbane-based start-up, which last week announced $24 million (US$16 million) in renewed investment from private health insurance company NIB, said it reaches 70 percent of regional postcodes, including many remote towns.
“We get repeated messages coming from our customers in rural areas around the inability to access GPs in a timely manner,” Midnight Health co-founder Nic Blair told AAP….