Telehealth went from a niche service to a mainstream one in the space of two years, and it has since settled into a steady, permanent share of Australian health care. The numbers below are drawn only from official sources — the AIHW, the ABS and the Department of Health — with a link on every figure. Where a statistic is tied to a particular period, we say so, because telehealth data can be misread if you ignore the dates.
How big telehealth got
The headline figures come from the pandemic build-up, when national reporting tracked telehealth closely. Between 13 March 2020 and 31 July 2022, 118.2 million telehealth services were delivered to 18 million patients, and more than 95,000 practitioners used telehealth to provide them (AIHW).
A separate AIHW summary frames the same era slightly differently: between March 2020 and March 2022, around 17 million Australians used over 100 million telehealth consultations (AIHW). The small differences between the two are just a matter of end dates — the first figure runs a few months longer.
The scale here is the story. In two years, telehealth reached roughly two-thirds of the Australian population and involved tens of thousands of clinicians. That’s not a pilot — that’s infrastructure.
What it cost, and who delivered it
By the time telehealth passed its first 100 million services (as at March 2022), more than $5 billion in Medicare benefits had been paid for those consultations (Department of Health, Disability and Ageing).
The same source breaks that first 100 million down by provider type:
| Provider type | Telehealth services (to March 2022) |
|---|---|
| GPs | almost 83 million |
| Specialists | almost 11 million |
| Allied health professionals | around 5 million |
Source: Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.
The pattern is clear: general practice did the overwhelming majority of the work. Telehealth in Australia is, first and foremost, a general-practice story — which fits, since GP care is where follow-ups, mental health consults, results and repeat scripts naturally suit a remote format. For what that care looks like in practice, see what is telehealth.
The trend since the peak
The pandemic surge was always going to ease as in-person care fully reopened. The best ongoing measure is the ABS Patient Experiences survey, which asks people whether they’ve had a telehealth consultation in the previous 12 months.
The proportion of people who had at least one telehealth consultation for their own health in the last 12 months decreased to 22.5% in 2024-25, from 23.6% in 2023-24, and a peak of 30.8% in 2021-22 (Australian Bureau of Statistics).
Read that carefully, because it’s easy to misinterpret:
- Telehealth use is down from its peak, as expected once waiting rooms reopened.
- But it has not collapsed — well over a fifth of Australians still used telehealth in the most recent year measured.
- The decline between 2023-24 and 2024-25 was small (23.6% to 22.5%), which suggests use is levelling off rather than fading away.
In other words, telehealth has normalised. It’s no longer a crisis substitute for in-person care; it’s a standing option that a large minority of people use every year.
What the numbers do — and don’t — tell you
A few honest caveats, so these statistics aren’t over-read:
- The big cumulative totals are historical. The 118.2 million services and $5 billion figures describe the 2020–2022 build-up, when telehealth was reported as a distinct national program. They’re a measure of how the system scaled, not a current annual rate.
- The ABS survey is the better gauge of “now”. Because it’s asked every year, the Patient Experiences percentages are the cleanest way to track ongoing uptake, and they’re the figures to watch going forward.
- “Telehealth” bundles phone and video together. Headline counts don’t split the two, and the mix has shifted over time as video capability improved.
- Uptake isn’t evenly spread. As the AIHW notes elsewhere, access to devices and the internet varies, so national averages hide real differences between groups. We discuss that in advantages of telehealth.
Put together, the responsible reading is this: treat the enormous 2020–2022 totals as a record of how quickly the system scaled, and treat the annual ABS percentage as the live signal of how much telehealth Australians actually use now. Mixing the two — for example, quoting a cumulative “100 million services” figure as if it were a yearly rate — is the most common way telehealth data gets distorted. When you see a telehealth statistic quoted without a date, be sceptical.
Why the trend matters for clinicians
For a practice deciding how much to invest in telehealth, the data points the same way: this is a permanent, sizeable slice of demand, not a passing spike. A fifth of the population using telehealth in a year is more than enough to justify getting the setup right — which mostly means choosing software that patients can actually connect to without friction. A tool where the patient joins by tapping a link, with no app or account, is what keeps that share of appointments running smoothly; it’s what MedCall is built to do.
It also reframes how to think about demand. Telehealth uptake settling in the low-20s per cent doesn’t mean one in five of your consults will be remote — the mix varies enormously by discipline and patient group. General practice, mental health and allied health tend to see far higher telehealth shares than procedure-heavy specialties. The national figures set the backdrop; your own appointment book tells you how much telehealth capacity to build.
The bottom line
Australia’s telehealth statistics tell a two-part story: an enormous, fast adoption during 2020–2022 — 118.2 million services, 18 million patients, more than 95,000 practitioners and over $5 billion in Medicare benefits — followed by a settling to a steady annual rate, with 22.5% of people using telehealth in 2024-25. It rose fast, eased from its peak, and has stayed. For the ongoing picture, the ABS Patient Experiences release is the number to track, and our look at the future of telehealth covers where it heads next.
Sources & further reading
This article is general information for Australian clinicians and patients and reflects the rules and sources current at the date of publication. It is not medical, legal or billing advice, and it is not a substitute for the official guidance of Services Australia, the Department of Health and Aged Care, AHPRA or your professional college. Always check the primary sources linked above for the current position.
The MedCall Team
MedCall is secure telehealth video software built and run by Telehealth Australia Group, a registered Australian telehealth practice. We write these guides for the clinicians who use MedCall every day.