Doctors Urge Federal Action On "Pitiful" Travel Supports For Rural Patients, Australia

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 17 Jun 2010 - 4:00 PDT


The Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) has called on the Federal Government to take urgent action to improve the "pitifully low level" of travel and accommodation support currently being offered by the state governments to assist rural patients who must travel to distant centres for treatment.

RDAA has reiterated its call following a Sydney Morning Herald article detailing the heavy financial burden placed on Jo Porter, from the rural NSW town of Guyra, when obtaining treatment in Sydney over multiple visits for her young son Will who was diagnosed with a rare but aggressive form of cancer.

SMH journalist Malcolm Brown reported that when Ms Porter and Will had to seek accommodation in a Sydney hotel at a cost of about $100 a night, the NSW Government‟s Isolated Patients Travel and Accommodation Assistance Scheme (IPTAAS) paid just $45 (the IPTAAS rate for a double room).

And when they no longer qualified for airfares, Ms Porter and Will were forced to drive to and from Sydney (roundtrips of over 1000 kilometres each time) at a mileage reimbursement rate of just 15 cents a kilometre.

Even the Australian Taxation Office sets $183 per night as being a reasonable per night cost of staying in Sydney, and its mileage reimbursement of 63 cents per kilometre for smaller cars is well above that paid by IPTAAS and patient travel support schemes in other states.

RDAA has calculated that at IPTAAS rates Ms Porter would have received around $158 in mileage for each roundtrip to and from Sydney, while under the ATO rate she would have received at least $665-making a difference of over $500 per trip, which would add up significantly over multiple trips.

RDAA President, Dr Nola Maxfield, said it is now time for the Federal Government to step in and dramatically improve the financial support being provided to rural patients and their families under the support schemes-something that will best be achieved through the introduction of a national scheme backed by federal funding.

"At the end of the day, this is about ensuring proper access to health care for rural patients" Dr Maxfield said. "Rural Australians don‟t expect to have all types of treatment options available locally to them for serious illnesses, but at the very least they deserve to receive decent financial support when they do have to travel to the city to access this treatment.

"The need to improve these schemes was meant to be tackled as part of the national health reform process, following recommendations by the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission. Yet it‟s been well over a year since the Commission handed down its recommendations and nothing appears to have been achieved.

"While the supports provided under these schemes remain as low as they are, more and more rural patients-including low income earners and pensioners-will decide that they can‟t afford to travel to the city for the treatment they need, and instead will choose to take less effective treatment options or, even worse, no treatment at all-this can only continue to result in worse health outcomes and arguably even premature deaths."

Dr Maxfield added there was also a need to expand access to videoconferencing in rural areas (and ensure these services were reimbursable through Medicare) so rural patients could have follow-up reviews without travelling long distances to see a specialist in person, and that where possible local health services should be „skilled up‟ to provide chemotherapy and some other treatment options locally.

Source
Rural Doctors Association of Australia

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