Jointly led by the Royal Melbourne Hospital and Austin Health, the Virtual Hospital Pilot is enabling more Victorians to receive care and recover at home.
The model uses digital technology to link patients at home or in rural and regional hospitals with specialists at Austin Health and the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
More than 600 Victorians have received care since the Pilot launched in December 2025, including through:
- Virtual wards for patients with heart failure or recovering from cardiac surgery, using remote monitoring and regular virtual check-ins to support recovery at home.
- Regional virtual support services, enabling patients to receive virtual specialist consultations while they are in rural and regional hospitals, improving access to care not readily available locally.
- Virtual fetal consultations for high-risk mothers in regional areas, providing specialist advice from the Royal Women's Hospital without the need for travel to Melbourne.
Beyond patient care, the Pilot is expanding the Royal Melbourne Hospital’s Digital Coordination Centre, using real-time data to manage ambulance demand and hospital capacity. This is reducing delays, and getting paramedics back on the road sooner.
The Virtual Hospital Pilot is backed by $6.1 million in Victorian Government investment and will run until the end of June 2027.
This initiative builds on the state’s commitment to virtual care, including:
- the Specialist care reform blueprint that sets a practical reform agenda to modernise specialist care, including embedding virtual care as the default approach for specialist care services when clinically appropriate and preferred by patients and their families, and
- the Victorian Virtual Emergency Department, which received $437 million in the 2025-26 Budget to double its capacity and make the service permanent.
Together, these programs reflect the Victorian Government’s plan to connect people to the right care, reduce pressure on hospitals, and embrace technology to deliver high-quality healthcare closer to home.
For further information about the Virtual Hospital Pilot please email virtualhospital@health.vic.gov.au.
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