Journal article
Expanding Access to Addiction Medicine Specialist Care in Regional New South Wales, Australia Through Telehealth
Drug and Alcohol Review, Vol.45, pp.1-9
2026
PMID: 41587789
Abstract
Introduction
Australians in regional areas face substantial barriers accessing alcohol and other drug specialist medical care. This study observed a newly implemented telehealth model of public addiction medicine specialist care, the TeleHUB model, in two regional New South Wales (NSW), Australia Local Health Districts: Murrumbidgee and Western NSW. A shared-care approach was employed; a metropolitan hospital (St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney) acted as a central coordinating service for providing additional (Murrumbidgee, commencing August 2019) or fly-in-fly-out replacement (Western NSW, commencing February 2021) telehealth consultations by an addiction medicine specialist, while local services provided in-person support.
Methods
Interrupted time series analysis examining changes in monthly scheduled appointments with an addiction medicine specialist were conducted using retrospective administrative data pre- and post-TeleHUB implementation. Data were collected for Murrumbidgee from October 2016 to March 2022 and for Western NSW from July 2016 to March 2022. Qualitative semi-structured interviews examining staff and client acceptability of the model were conducted across participating sites.
Results
Monthly scheduled consultations post-TeleHUB implementation increased compared to pre-implementation in Murrumbidgee (16.6 per month, 95% confidence interval 4.0–37.9; p < 0.001) but there was no evidence of such an increase in Western NSW. Qualitatively, clients and staff reported telehealth reduced client anxiety and increased service accessibility.
Discussion and Conclusions
The TeleHUB model has the potential to improve and maintain service accessibility in addiction medicine specialist healthcare. This model could strengthen local services by providing additional specialist appointments and further support to local services through reduction of travel time and costs associated with fly-in-fly-out models.
Details
- Title
- Expanding Access to Addiction Medicine Specialist Care in Regional New South Wales, Australia Through Telehealth
- Authors
- Clare S. Smylie - St Vincent's Hospital SydneyCarl I. Moller - St Vincent's Hospital SydneyLucy McWilliams - UNSW SydneyBrendan Clifford - UNSW SydneyLiam Acheson - UNSW SydneyMark Chambers - NSW Department of EducationKrista J. Siefried - UNSW SydneyJonathan Brett - UNSW SydneyAnthony Shakeshaft - UNSW SydneyDarren M. Roberts - Royal Prince Alfred HospitalClare Corliss - University of Newcastle AustraliaJane Rich - University of Newcastle AustraliaScott C. Clark - Western NSW Local Health DistrictRobyn Manzie - MLHD-AUAdrian Dunlop - Hunter New England Local Health DistrictBronte Speirs - University of Newcastle AustraliaFrances Kay-Lambkin - University of Newcastle AustraliaNadine Ezard (Corresponding Author) - St Vincent's Hospital Sydney
- Publication details
- Drug and Alcohol Review, Vol.45, pp.1-9
- Publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
- Date published
- 2026
- DOI
- 10.1111/dar.70101
- ISSN
- 1465-3362
- PMID
- 41587789
- Copyright note
- © 2026 The Author(s). Drug and Alcohol Review published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
- Data Availability
- Data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
- Grant note
- NSW Health. Grant Number: H19/53776
- Organisation Unit
- School of Health - Psychology
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991241464702621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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