Outreach

About Outreach

Outreach services aim to increase access to medical, allied health and nursing services for people living in remote, rural and regional areas, as well as both metropolitan and non-metropolitan Aboriginal communities by providing urban and regionally-based health practitioners with the opportunity to experience working in rural or Aboriginal communities, and by supporting students and registrars to participate in Outreach clinics to gain exposure to rural and Aboriginal health. The Australian Government's Health Outreach programs are administered in NSW and the ACT by Rural Doctors Network (RDN).

Outreach aims to increase access to health services for communities in need by: 

• delivering clinics that reduce access barriers, including: 
  • distance and disruption from travel to major centres
  • cost and economic hurdles
  • cultural safety barriers; 
• strengthening local service capacity through up-skilling; and
• enhancing service coordination through forming partnerships and developing solutions.

Outreach programs administered by RDN

RDN administers six Outreach programs funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care:

• Rural Health Outreach Fund (RHOF)
• Medical Outreach Indigenous Chronic Disease Program (MOICDP)
• Visiting Optometrists Scheme (VOS)
• Ear and Eye Surgical Support Services (EESS)
• Healthy Ears, Better Hearing, Better Listening (HEBHBL)
• Aboriginal Eye Health Coordination Program (AEHC)

Funded through other pathways:

• Western NSW Eye Health Partnership (WEHP), with Fred Hollows Foundation

How does Outreach work?

RDN is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care (DoHAC) to administer the delivery of health Outreach services to regional, remote and Aboriginal communities in New South Wales (NSW) and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). We also collaborate with other organisations and funding bodies to support Outreach projects. 

Through the Outreach program, RDN works in partnership with local organisations to support health professionals who provide more than 1200 Outreach services annually, in around 180 towns and communities in NSW and the ACT, providing more than 200,000 patient occasions of service each year. RDN holds partnerships with more than 60 health organisations that implement the local delivery of Outreach services.

RDN’s local partners include Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services, Local Health Districts, NGOs, hospitals and Primary Health Networks. More than 60% of services are accessed by Aboriginal patients.

Outreach programs remove some of the most common barriers experienced by many patients through:

• the provision of services in regional and remote locations and via telehealth to minimise the time, travel cost and disruption often required of patients to access the nearest alternative service that may be hundreds of kilometres away.
• prioritising support for services that are bulk-billed or free of charge in order to remove the economic hurdles that rural and Aboriginal patients often face.
• delivering culturally safe services to reduce cultural barriers that are otherwise experienced by many Aboriginal patients. When appropriate, Outreach services are hosted by Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHSs) and visiting health practitioners are supported to undertake cultural safety training and local community orientation.
• supporting clinical up-skilling sessions that are provided by visiting health practitioners to strengthen the capacity of local health services and practitioners to manage patients’ ongoing care.
• developing partnerships with regional, state and national stakeholders to enhance the coordination of health services, identify priority needs and implement solutions that may include service changes or policy recommendations.

Outreach programs also provide urban and regionally based health practitioners with the opportunity to experience working in a rural or Aboriginal community, which in some cases has led to health practitioners relocating permanently to rural locations. Outreach also supports students and registrars to participate in Outreach clinics and gain exposure to rural and Aboriginal health. Registered health professionals with an interest in getting involved are invited to view our vacancies list below and lodge an Expression of Interest.

Outreach News:

• Echoes of Care: 10 years transforming children's hearing in Western NSW
• Bringing together key Outreach stakeholders across NSW
• Western NSW Eye Health Partnership attends 2024 Koori Knockout
• RDN doubles support in response to calls to expand obstetrics Outreach services in Condobolin
• Armidale Eye and Ear Surgical Support (EESS) program
• Meet Outreach practitioner Luke Higgins: An optometrist's passion for rural healthcare in the outback
• Outreach Indigenous Chronic Disease Program changing lives in Katoomba
• Outreach supporting Obstetrics in the Bush  

“For me, restoring a child's hearing is so rewarding, you can’t describe it, it’s better than finding life on Mars, there are truly no words.” Laurie Clay, Aboriginal Health Worker with Werin Aboriginal Corporation Medical Centre Read more about outreach practitioners, like Laurie, who are restoring hearing to Aboriginal children in some of NSW’s remote and rural communities.