A guide to paediatric rehabilitation outreach in NSW

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This guide has been developed to support the implementation of minimum standard 3.1 – Each Paediatric Rehabilitation Service (PRS) site provides quarterly outreach clinics in conjunction with local health district (LHD) services and teams.

See About the project for background on the Review of Health Services for Children, Young People and Families Within the NSW Health System (Henry Review) and the development of the minimum standards.1

NSW specialist paediatric rehabilitation services are provided through tertiary services at John Hunter Children’s Hospital in Newcastle, Sydney Children’s Hospital in Randwick and The Children’s Hospital at Westmead. Collectively, these three specialist services are known as the NSW Paediatric Rehabilitation Services or PRS.

Aim of outreach

Outreach for paediatric rehabilitation in NSW is the provision of paediatric rehabilitation outpatient clinics closer to home, specifically for patients in rural and regional locations. This may include face to face and virtual settings and includes provision of botulinum toxin clinics.

Outreach aims to increase health service access for regional and rural communities, including Aboriginal people. It does this by delivering clinics that:

  • reduce access barriers, such as cost, distance and cultural safety
  • strengthen local service capacity
  • enhance service coordination.2

Out of scope

For the purposes of this guide, the following areas are considered out of scope.

  • Provision of other paediatric rehabilitation services, such as outpatient therapy, day or inpatient rehabilitation
  • Provision of paediatric rehabilitation services for children who reside in border locations and access a rehabilitation specialist or service interstate.

Method

This guide has been developed in collaboration with a number of ACI teams, as well as clinicians from various NSW Health locations and interstate paediatric rehabilitation services.

Processes which informed the guide

  • Rapid evidence review completed by the ACI Evidence Generation and Dissemination Team3
  • Data review and analysis completed by the ACI Innovation, Modelling and Data Science Stream
  • Consultation with:
    • clinicians who currently provide paediatric outreach in NSW for children with complex health conditions
    • tertiary paediatric rehabilitation services across Australia
    • clinicians and managers from the NSW PRS, based in Newcastle, Randwick and Westmead
    • members of the Reach Out project team from Hunter New England LHD and the NSW Ministry of Health.

References

  1. Henry R. Review of health services for children, young people and families within the NSW Health system. Australia: NSW Health; 2019 [cited Jun 2022].
  2. NSW Rural Doctors Network. Outreach, about outreach. Hamilton, NSW: NSW Rural Doctors Network; n.d. [cited 5 Oct 2022].
  3. NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation. Paediatric rehabilitation outreach models: Evidence check. Sydney: ACI; 2022.
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