On a recent visit to Cobar and Bourke, Jacqueline Emery, CEO of Royal Far West focuses on the critical pressures in paediatric healthcare in rural and regional Australia. The increasing need for ongoing RFW specialist paediatric and psychiatric care, coupled with many paediatricians closing their books or having long waitlists in rural NSW, has meant we are seeing an increased demand for our specialist paediatric and psychiatric care services.
Royal Far West provides a long-running Child & Family Service, which is a holistic multi-disciplinary service for country children with complex developmental, behavioural and mental health needs. We support over 400 children annually in this program, and is partially funded by NSW Health.
Jacqueline discusses the challenges of heightened child complexity amidst a state-wide shortage of paediatric appointments.
Part 2 of the interview