Early medical abortion provision via telehealth in Victoria: A qualitative descriptive study

Little is known about the views of service providers currently working in telehealth early medical abortion (EMA) provision in Victoria, Australia. This study aims to contextualise the enablers and barriers to telehealth EMA provision, providing insight for healthcare policy and practice to improve the accessibility of this service.

This was a qualitative descriptive study involving semi-structured interviews with 14 Victorian stakeholders with expertise and knowledge on telehealth EMA provision. Data were analysed using conventional content analysis.

This study presents perceived enablers and barriers across four different contexts of the Victorian abortion system: (1) perceived patient context; (2) perceived provider context; (3) health organisation-system context; and (4) sociopolitical context. The COVID-19 pandemic's disruption of healthcare services led to greater patient and provider acceptance of telehealth EMA. However, barriers within the patient context included the inability to ensure safety and confidentiality, digital access and literacy issues, language barriers, and the importance of trusting provider-patient relationships. Providers encountered challenges in delivering holistic care via telehealth, including time and workload issues and working with interpreters. Shortcomings within the organisational context encompassed structural barriers for culturally and linguistically diverse population groups, the absence of standard telehealth guidelines and varying interpretations of telehealth. Although temporary Medicare item number changes improved access, they presented financial challenges for mixed and private billing practices.

The application of these findings by relevant health services and policymakers has the potential to improve the quality of, and increase accessibility to, telehealth EMA, better meeting the needs of individuals seeking this service.