The Hunter's struggling allied health sector will receive a boost from a new program to supervise students who treat patients, with a focus on health and development checks for preschool children.
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park announced the Rural Allied Health Educator Program on Friday.
The Newcastle Herald reported last week that staff shortages in the allied health sector meant people were increasingly missing out on access to services.
Mr Park said the program would "create a pipeline of allied health workers".
It will be established in four health districts - Hunter New England, Western NSW, Murrumbidgee and Southern NSW.
The Department of Regional NSW will provide $1 million a year over three years for the program.
Mr Park said the program would support the employment of up to seven allied health educators across the four districts.
They will "directly supervise" allied health students who treat patients.
"This will boost the number of allied health student clinical placements we can provide," he said.
"By bringing these clinical educators on board, more than 100 additional speech pathology, occupational therapy and other allied health students will undertake clinical placements across these regions each year.
"We are doubling the number of allied health students who undertake clinical placements."
Student clinical placements take four to six weeks and give students experience across a range of areas.
Minister for Regional NSW Tara Moriarty said increasing these placements was "essential for boosting the future allied health workforce in rural and regional NSW, where there is very high demand for these services - particularly for children and families".
