GPNow’s Ukrainian Crisiscare on 6PR Mornings with Liam Bartlett
On Thursday 12th May, 2022 we had the wonderful opportunity to share the GPNow Story and talk about the Ukrainian CrisisCare Telehealth Service live on-air with Liam Bartlett.
Our CEO Robert Hicken joined Liam on 6PR Mornings to chat about how GPNow has grown from a small Perth company to a global healthcare provider, and how our latest innovation is offering a lifeline to those affected by the conflict in Ukraine.
It was so humbling to hear Liam talk about how our home-grown idea to bring Telehealth to the most vulnerable here in Australia has now evolved to help those at the coalface of war on the other side of the world.
Robert explained to Liam that when GPNow was established, we could never have imagined what was in store for us – first with the bushfires, then the Covid-19 pandemic, and now with the situation in Ukraine. In fact, we had already expanded to offer Telehealth support for the most vulnerable in the Asia Pacific region, including those in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, when the fighting broke out in Ukraine.
Robert spoke about how, when watching news reports about the war in Ukraine, he felt compelled to do something to help. He knew it would be an enormous challenge, with issues such as language barriers and time differences to contend with, but he wasn’t about to let that stop him!
Thanks to support from Amazon Web Services and others, we were able to get our Ukrainian CrisisCare Telehealth service up and running but, as Robert explained to Liam, it was far from an easy feat. We needed to spend a lot of time making sure this service would be compliant and clinically accurate, and checking that all our doctors were licensed to practice and held the appropriate insurance, because we want to ensure that the Ukrainian people get the very best possible care – they deserve it.
“It’s not for the first time we’ve worked to a tight deadline – we experienced a similar situation with our bushfire initiative, and we managed to put our spinal care program together in just nine days – but this is a much, much bigger task, on a global scale.”
What we’ve managed to create in such a short time is nothing short of miraculous. Ukrainian CrisisCare is now operating 24/7, and we’re ramping up to increase the capacity of the service steadily over the next few months. We’ve turned off the billing function for this program, because it’s not a business initiative – it’s a humanitarian initiative. That means hundreds of donated man hours and teams working round the clock to ensure free, high-quality health care is available to the Ukrainian people.
We still need more GPs to sign up to help – in particular, those who can speak Ukrainian languages. While we have been able to build a translating option into the platform, we know that for these vulnerable people, being able to talk to a doctor who speaks their language is very important. Recruiting more doctors who speak Ukrainian languages will enable us to further improve on the advice, comfort, and support we’re providing to people at this devastating time.
With more than five million refugees expected to be displaced from their homes due to this conflict, there’s still a lot of work to be done. We’ve set the ambitious goal of providing half a million free consultations each month through the platform, which is a massive logistical task, but we think that with a little determination and some assistance from our amazing supporters, we can do it!
We’d like to sincerely thank Liam, and the entire team at 6PR Mornings, for the opportunity to get our message out there. We’re hopeful that some of his listeners will join us as GPs, or tell their colleagues about the initiative so we can get more doctors and translators on board.
If you’re a member of the Ukrainian community in Australia and you’d like to lend a hand, or you know of a GP who can speak a Ukrainian language and may be interested in supporting this initiative, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.
Even if you don’t speak a Ukrainian language, and you’re not a doctor, you can help us spread the word. If you have friends or family in Ukraine or eastern Europe, let them know about GPNow, so more people become aware that this service is available.
To access Ukrainian CrisisCare, all they need to do is head to our website www.gpnow.net/ua. Everything has been translated for them, with clear instructions on how to register and book an appointment.
The service provides FREE access to volunteer medical professionals via the GPNow telehealth platform for anyone in need of assistance.
If you’re a medical professional, now is the time to volunteer your skills to help those suffering during this terrible time. We’re also seeking volunteers to fill important supporting roles, such as Ukrainian speaking translators, project managers and digital marketing professionals “Program Champions” to help us raise awareness about the service.
And if you don’t have those hands-on skills that are so desperately needed to support an initiative of this magnitude – you can still help by contributing to help fund the Ukrainian CrisisCare Telehealth service, to fill the critical shortage and ensure the most vulnerable can access virtual medical care.