Source: Australian Capital Territory Policing
Victorians can soon trial a new way of accessing specialist healthcare, through the state’s first virtual hospital – designed to deliver care remotely and improve access to specialist care across the state.
Following a competitive tender process, The Royal Melbourne Hospital and Austin Health are the successful applicants to pilot the new service.
The service, when operational, will be capable of providing acute and subacute virtual care services for more than 250 patients, and is part of the Victorian Government’s plan to connect people to the right care, free up hospital beds and support patients to receive high-quality care at home.
The pilot will include virtual wards, with an initial focus on heart failure and post cardiac patients across both metropolitan and regional Victoria, to support patients to recover at home faster.
The service will also provide virtual ward rounds and monitoring, partnering with rural and regional health services to provide regional and rural patients access to tertiary specialist expertise.
A virtual foetal monitoring service to remotely monitor the health of babies is also included, with scans then sent to the Royal Women’s Hospital for a virtual consultation, saving regional mothers a trip into Melbourne.
The scope will also include ambulance and health service capacity and demand coordination, to make meaningful use of data and help ambulances get back on the road faster.
Both hospitals are currently designing how care will be delivered and finalising which services will be offered. Patients will begin accessing care through a phased rollout commencing in December, with the pilot set to be evaluated in June 2026.
Importantly, the success of the pilot will be evaluated with consideration to a range of outcomes, including positive patient experience and outcomes, the usability of virtual technology, and equitable access to care.
The design and delivery of the virtual hospital pilot is supported by a $3 million investment through the Victorian Budget 25/26.
This builds on existing virtual care options like the Victorian Virtual Emergency Department, which saw an investment of $437 million in this year’s budget to massively expand and make the service permanent.