Having access to the highest quality of care is a right of all people regardless of where they live. Telemedicine presents an opportunity for populations living in rural and remote areas. Telemedicine should include intra- and interdisciplinary care involving all health and social care professionals and local communities (patients and their informal caregivers). Telemedicine is a tool to support the delivery of high-quality health services and should not be used to cut services.
The non- state actors (NSAs) supporting this statement urge the WHO member states to action to progress the use of telemedicine as a tool to support the practice of family medicine for the benefit of its patients:
to undertake health technology assessments to ensure that the implementation of telemedicine is equitable for all primary care clinicians and their patients across the different geographies and demographics of Europe to engage PHC organizations in collaboration with governments, policy-makers, and other stakeholders to ensure proper implementation and regulation of telemedicine in order to achieve equitable availability and acceptability of care for all people living in Europe. Collaboration is essential to ensure a robust patient family-centered service to ensure that telemedicine is not used as a tool to cut services, especially in rural areas. Telemedicine is another way for a clinician to determine, together with the patient, the best way to deliver services European politicians, governments, and other decision-makers are urged to address the digital divide including the provision of infrastructure such as broadband and mobile coverage in remote and rural areas to address the urgent need for official recognition of telemedicine by heath/social care and the development of guidelines on its use, but to minimize bureaucracy that could hinder the development and the implementation of formal and informal telemedicine to ensure that new strategies, policies, and models for service delivery are effectively rural proofed to ensure equity of opportunity for rural remote populations and their primary care clinicians
As the NSAs in PHC, we wish to strongly emphasize that the use of telemedicine as a tool should support delivery of primary healthcare services equitably in all areas across Europe. |
