Every winter, Australia’s hospitals brace for a familiar surge. Cold weather, respiratory viruses and a busier calendar of falls and flare-ups combine to push emergency departments towards capacity, and 2025 showed just how sharp that curve can be.
With another challenging season underway, health leaders are looking beyond hospital walls for solutions that keep older Australians safe at home and take pressure off the acute system. Monitored personal alarms and broader telecare services have a growing role to play.
A season that stretches every part of the system
Australia recorded 502,938 laboratory-confirmed influenza notifications in 2025, the highest annual count since influenza became nationally notifiable in 2001. The Australian Bureau of Statistics attributed 1,701 deaths to influenza-related illness that year, with 1,423 directly attributed to influenza, surpassing previous highs seen in 2017 and 2019.
The strain reached emergency departments early and stayed. NSW logged 186,768 flu notifications in 2025, a 15.8 per cent lift on 2024, alongside more than 23,700 ED presentations for influenza-like illness, a 45 per cent increase year on year. Western Australia’s health system managed close to 1.2 million ED visits and 700,000 public hospital admissions across the same period. The Australasian College for Emergency Medicine has already warned that this winter’s flu surge is yet to peak, with EDs running at full capacity.
Older Australians feel this pressure most acutely. Winter brings a lift in falls, chest infections and cardiac events, and a hospital stay can trigger deconditioning, hospital-acquired complications and a longer, slower recovery. Anything that safely keeps people out of ED corridors matters.
How telecare fits into a stretched system
Telecare covers a range of connected devices that support people to remain safely at home, and monitored personal alarms sit at its centre. When a wearer presses the help button, or when the alarm’s fall detection identifies a fall, an alert is sent to a 24/7 monitoring centre staffed by trained operators.
From there, the operator works through the situation with the client, calls nominated contacts, such as family or carers, and coordinates an ambulance response when it is genuinely needed.
That coordination step matters. Not every alert becomes a triple zero call. Many are resolved through a check-in from family, a visit from a neighbour, or advice from a GP. When emergency services are required, ambulance crews arrive prepared , with relevant medical data, access pathway to the home and a clearer picture of what has happened.
For a health system trying to keep beds free and ramping under control, that difference adds up. Every avoided presentation is a bed that stays available for someone who needs it. Every guided response is minutes saved for paramedics.
Supporting safe discharge and post-hospital recovery
Telecare is not only useful before a hospital admission. It plays a growing role in helping older patients return home confidently after one. Winter admissions are frequently followed by anxious discharges, where clinicians and families worry about how the person will manage alone once the immediate treatment is complete.
A monitored personal alarm gives that person a direct line to a trained operator, day or night. If a wound flares, a medication reaction sets in, or a fall happens on the way to the bathroom, help is just a button-press away. Both pendant and watch-style alarms can include fall detection, and mobile alarm options extend that same support outside the home for people who are steady enough to keep walking, gardening or catching up with friends.
For occupational therapists, discharge planners and community care teams, that continuity of support can shorten inpatient stays, reduce readmissions and support earlier discharge, giving families the confidence to take their loved one home earlier.
Peace of mind for families, breathing room for services
Families often carry a quiet load during winter. Adult children living interstate, spouses caring for someone with a chronic condition, siblings trying to coordinate check-ins across busy weeks. A monitored alarm can help change that dynamic.
Instead of relying on repeated phone calls or drop-ins, the family knows a professional operator is on standby around the clock and will be in contact the moment something is wrong.
That peace of mind ripples outwards. It lets carers rest. It lets clinicians discharge with confidence. And it lets the person wearing the device stay independent without feeling like they’re a burden..
Choosing a monitored service that meets the standard
Telecare is only as strong as the service behind it. Referrers should look for a provider that is compliant with AS 4607, the Australian Standard covering monitored personal response services.
Compliance sets clear expectations for how quickly operators respond, how the monitoring centre is staffed and audited, and how emergency escalations are handled. PERSL members are held to that standard, which is why hospitals, aged care providers and community health teams increasingly direct their clients towards accredited services rather than off-the-shelf devices.
One practical point worth flagging with clients and their families: all personal alarms rely on mobile network coverage to function. In areas with patchy or no mobile reception, they will not be able to send an alert. Only satellite personal alarms work without mobile coverage, and not all providers offer these devices. Checking reception at the wearer’s home, and asking the provider what options exist for regional or rural addresses, should be part of any recommendation.
Wrapping up
Hospitals will keep doing what hospitals do best, but the system works better when the community around it is well supported. Telecare will not solve winter demand on its own. Paired with vaccination, community health outreach, in-home care and family involvement, it can help thousands of Australians ride out the season safely at home, and let hospitals focus their beds and their people on those who most need them.
For clinicians, referrers and healthcare partners looking for a starting point, PERSL’s accredited members are a good place to begin.