Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney has extended its rpavirtual service first developed for palliative and chronic care patients and then ramped up to provide care for COVID-19 patients at home to a new virtual rehabilitation program and an intensive care service for critically ill patients at Broken Hill Base Hospital in western NSW.

rpavirtual was established as a proof of concept project in early 2020, just as the coronavirus hit. It was rapidly scaled up to provide help for COVID-19 positive patients, with a 24/7 virtual care centre set up staffed by RPA nurses, with Sydney Local Health District (SLHD) community nurses also visiting patients in their homes.