Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Authority Had Paid Teladoc About $32.1 Million for Virtual Care as of April 30

A mayor in rural Newfoundland says most people in his community who needed urgent care in the past few years arrived at the local health centre and “talked to a TV.”

The provincial health authority had paid Teladoc about $32.1 million as of April 30 to provide virtual primary care to people without family doctors and to staff emergency rooms and urgent care centres with virtual physicians, spokesperson Mikaela Etchegary said.

Dr. David Metcalfe, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association, says the expansion of Teladoc’s services is a symptom of an unsolved doctor shortage. He said virtual care was never intended to replace a patient’s access to their own family physician or become a permanent substitute for emergency care.