ROCKY MOUNT, Va. (WDBJ) – Getting access to high quality healthcare has become a challenge for many people living in southwest Virginia and other rural areas.

Monday afternoon, state and federal officials heard similar stories during two different discussions about the problem.

9th District Congressman Morgan Griffith turned his attention to rural healthcare during a visit to the Bernard Health Care Center in Rocky Mount.

“Do you think that would be helpful to you all providing additional services if the telemedicine was more open,” he asked Executive Director Ellen Holland.

“Yes especially when it comes to specialists,” she responded.

Griffith said access to health care has become a major concern of his constituents in a district that’s larger in land mass than nine states.

“They’re going to talk about things like inflation and then they’re going to go oh i want to make sure I can get to a health care provider in a reasonable amount of time instead of having to drive an hour or 45 minutes to the nearest medical center or hospital,” he said.

We heard similar themes during a virtual meeting of a House of Delegates Committee charged with advancing rural and small town health care.

Dr. Laura Settles is a dentist in Wythe and Bland Counties. She described the challenge of finding a specialist for a young patient with a potentially cancerous lesion.

“I called over 10 providers and could not find an office within 90 miles that would see my patient,” she said.

While some areas have lost their hospitals, many others are dealing with a shortage of healthcare workers and the lack of transportation for Medicaid patients.

Griffith said the federal government needs to do a better job of making tools available to help health care providers and their patients in rural areas.

“I’m a big proponent of tele-health,” he said in an interview. “We need to make sure they can get the medicines and pharmaceuticals they need to take care of people. But they can do even more, if we provide the tele-health and other collaborations.”

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