On-duty nurses assessed patients presenting to the Urgent Care Unit before connecting the patients via iPads to emergency doctors.

Director clinical services and aged care Kate Pryde oversaw the trial and said the system would improve patient care and doctor fatigue.

"There is a new national service called myemergencydr.com which is a group of emergency specialists that are providing a telehealth service across Australia," Ms Pryde said.

"It's currently used by the ambulance service and community members, and it's available to hospitals should they be seeking support from emergency specialists."

Other health services, including ones in Melbourne, are already using the health service.

"We had previously explored accessing myemergencydr.com to support our general practitioners if they wanted emergency physician access," Ms Pryde said.

"They can use this service by way of a second level consultation.

"We can also use it at times where, for whatever reason, we've not been able to procure medical doctors, or in the space of doctor fatigue.

"If you've had a doctor that's been working solidly for 20 hours and they need a break, we can allow them to take that break and have a sleep, but we still have access to emergency doctors."

The system could also help keep patients local instead of needing to transfer them.

"We dial in on an iPad and we're placed in a waiting room, where we're seen to by a triage specialist," Ms Pryde said.

"We're then connected and that doctor works with us to undertake a full medical assessment. They can organise pathology tests, radiology, and through the technology we can securely transmit our results and X-ray pictures.

"It prevents people being transferred out if we don't have a doctor here. I think it helps us use our resources better and smarter."

Ms Pryde also said the system could make rural doctor jobs more appealing if they don't have to take on such long shifts.

"In the long term it may help with our recruitment efforts because it's a big call to ask doctors to do 24 or 48 hours all the time," she said.

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