Getting any GP appointment can take days. Hola patients wait 11 minutes.
Hola’s own wait-time data, set against Australia’s GP access gap.
Key insights
Over the past year, Hola patients waited 11 minutes (mean average) for a consult, and 5.6 minutes for a medical certificate. More than 9 in 10 patients were seen, or got their certificate, in under 15 minutes — that’s Hola’s on-demand model, not a booked appointment days away. Though telehealth isn’t a substitute for emergency care, these figures sit against a wider system under pressure: nationally, the median wait in a public ED is 18 minutes [1], and only around half of people needing urgent GP care are seen within 4 hours [2] — many wait a full day or more.
How long do you wait for a telehealth appointment?
Two different models, two very different waits
Telehealth in Australia works in two different ways. Some services work like a normal GP clinic, just online. You book a future time slot, then wait for that appointment, sometimes days away. Others work on demand. You ask for care now, and a doctor picks it up as soon as one is free. Hola works the second way.
What's Holas wait time to see a doctor?
What this actually means
This is the wait once you start a request on Hola. It runs from opening a consult or certificate request to being connected with a doctor. It's not the same as waiting for a booked appointment days away. Note: this figure describes Hola's on-demand consult wait, not emergency care. Telehealth isn't a substitute for an emergency department — for anything time-critical, call 000 or go to your nearest ED.
Why wait times vary so much between providers
The gap comes down to structure, not effort. A single clinic can only see as many patients as the doctors rostered on that day allow. Hola's doctors are AHPRA-registered, and on call nationally, 24 hours a day, every day. A quiet period in one state doesn't leave patients waiting somewhere else. Hola has run this model since 2022, across more than 2 million consultations, in all 8 states and territories.
Nearly half of Australians wait a day or more for urgent GP care
Emergency departments are seeing more patients, more slowly
Non-emergency cases add to the strain
Medicare Urgent Care Clinics show this pressure is partly avoidable. 45% of clinic patients said they would have gone to an ED if the clinic hadn't existed (48% after-hours), across 1.8 million clinic visits [3]. Every non-emergency case that goes to telehealth can instead be one less person in an already-stretched ED queue.
Telehealth is a good first call for most non-emergency care
It’s not right for everything. Here’s a simple way to think about it.
- Cold and flu symptoms
- UTIs
- Prescriptions, if clinically suitable
- Medical certificates, if approved
- Most skin conditions and minor infections
Go to an emergency department, or call 000, for anything time-critical or life-threatening.