Funding bulk-billed telehealth consults may cut unnecessary presentations to hospital EDs, a survey suggests.

Just over one-third of patients who would usually head straight to the ED said they organised a GP appointment instead or called a helpline or other healthcare provider, the population-representative survey of 1289 adults found.

Of the 450 patients who did not go to the ED, 42% had face-to-face GP appointments, 21% had a telehealth GP appointment while 15% went to a walk-in GP clinic and 14% phoned a helpline.

Among those who had a telehealth appointment, 56% avoided a trip to the ED, while 43% who had an in-clinic appointment saved themselves a trip to hospital, compared to just 16% of those who called a helpline, report researchers from Flinders University.