Cobden Health Residential Care, which has 60 beds and Heywood Rural Health, 45 beds, are among 12 residential aged care facilities in western and south-west Victoria to get the extended service.

The program will be delivered by My Emergency Dr, an Australian-owned and operated 24/7 tele-emergency service that connects patients, carers and clinicians with a specialist emergency physician for direct consultations.

The project aims to increase access to timely medical advice, reducing the risk of exposure to COVID-19 and minimise unnecessary transfers to regional Urgent Care Centres or Emergency Departments for those living in residential aged care.

Access to the telehealth service is available until 31 May 2021, WVPHN chief executive officer Rowena Clift said.

"With the significant uptake in telehealth services as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw an opportunity to respond to the primary health care needs of our high-risk populations, including those living in aged care," she said.

"The after hours telehealth for residential aged care project allows us to not only offer greater opportunities to limit exposure to COVID-19 for aged care residents in the Great South Coast and their GPs, but to also alleviate some of the pressure on emergency departments in this very demanding time."