The virtual care experiences of more than 12,000 NSW patients have been revealed in a recent Bureau of Health Information report (BHI), which covers five years of surveys — from 2020 to 2024. The report provides key insights into patients’ experiences of virtual care services with NSW public hospital outpatient clinics, and includes information about the experiences of more than 6000 outpatients who also had virtual care appointments with GPs. With 18% of outpatient services in 2024 delivered through virtual care — up from 12% in 2019 — virtual care forms a major part of healthcare delivery for NSW Health patients. The data shows that, between 2020 and 2024, patients gave consistently high ratings of the virtual care they received from public hospital outpatient clinics, with around nine in 10 saying it was either ‘very good’ or ‘good’. Key factors highlighted in the report as influencing positive patient experiences include whether patients would use virtual care again and whether care helped. More information on the report is available here, via the BHI website. Image credit: iStock.com/FluxFactory