SW patients miss out ... by 3kms

Bunbury Hospital patients travelling from Bridgetown are missing out on travel concessions, a Parliamentary inquiry was told on Monday.

Members of the public administrative committee conducting the inquiry into the Patient Assisted Travel Scheme visited St John of God Hospital in Bunbury this week.

Three organisations, including Bridgetown-Greenbushes Shire Council’s acting chief executive officer, Michelle Larkworthy, presented information to the panel on the effectiveness of the scheme.

The inquiry, chaired by North Metropolitan Region MLC Liz Behjat, also heard from the South West Aboriginal Medical Service and the South West branch of the WA Country Health Service.

Mrs Behjat said the main concern raised during the hearing was that people living in Bridgetown were ineligible to receive travel assistance because the town was 3km closer to Bunbury than the minimum eligible distance.

Mrs Larkworthy told the hearing that residents in Bridgetown could not receive any financial assistance for transport because the town was 97km from Bunbury as measured between the two towns’ post offices.

To receive PATS travel assistance a patient needs to live 100km from their required hospital.

Mrs Larkworthy suggested a portion of the assistance be made available to people based on the distance they lived from where they needed to access medical treatment.

The South West was the last of the seven WA Country Health Service zones visited by the inquiry.

Mrs Behjat said the South West was unique in that its PATS services were administrated from Perth.

In other areas PATS clerks assessed patients’ eligibility for assistance.

“It is interesting that the scheme is administrated in a different way to other centres,” Mrs Behjat said.

“There’s no PATS clerk operating out of the hospital, it is outsourced to Osborne Park to Medibank Health Solutions.

“The system is interesting because it is completely objective, as long as someone meets the criteria they get the petrol money.”

The committee will make recommendations to Parliament on how the scheme could be improved to help country residents better access health care services.

Recommendations are expected to be made next year.

Click here to go mobile with iNFOGO - local everywhere