Melbourne's Northern Health says it is the first public health service to launch a virtual emergency department triage service in Australia, open to patients and to GPs in its catchment.

The service allows patients to talk virtually to a triage nurse on their phone or laptop, and includes an ED specialist medical telehealth option to help GPs and community healthcare providers to identify patients that traditionally would have been referred to ED, but may be suitable for ongoing management in the community with ED consultation.