Reducing Paediatric Outpatient Waitlists—A Proposed Allied Health Multidisciplinary Approach

Extremely long Australian paediatric outpatient waiting lists have resulted in large numbers of children waiting to see a paediatrician. Analyses of the patient referrals suggest that a large proportion of children may benefit from allied health input, in addition to being seen by the paediatrician. This paper provides an organisational strategy that involves streamlining Allied Health clinical services in an effort to assist with bringing down a Paediatric Out-patient waitlist. The paper describes principles to guide the formation of a Paediatric Allied Health Multi-Disciplinary team that proposes assessment and brief interventions. The service would focus on supporting the paediatricians through the use of structured procedures, telephone intakes, multidisciplinary triage, shared and standardised assessments, collaborative formulations and reports, brief interventions, clinical-community linkages, and allied health student support. A variety of additional important organisational principles are proposed to facilitate patient flow from the perspective of streamlining administrative processes, having adequate administrative support, shared responsibilities, teamwork, flexibility, carrying out intake assessments, determining which referrals were appropriate for allied health, and working closely with medical staff.