The state government should boost its patient subsidy for rural people forced to travel under its Isolated Patients Travel and Accommodation Assistance Scheme (IPTAAS).
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That's the second recommendation of the rural health inquiry by a NSW parliamentary committee, released on Thursday.
The inquiry recommends the government increase the reimbursement rate for both accommodation and per kilometre travel, expand eligibility criteria, streamline the application process to make it easier for patients to access the scheme and undertake a public awareness program of the scheme.
Cancer Council Chief Executive Officer Jeff Mitchell told the inquiry that the reimbursement is insufficient and inequitable compared with travel reimbursements offered to public servants.
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"If you are a New South Wales government employee you are rightly reimbursed for travel, currently at the Australian Taxation Office rate, which is 72c per kilometre," he said.
"IPTAAS is currently 22c per kilometre. That disparity should shock us."
The inquiry head that, in practice, the subsidy is not available to people with private health or participants in clinical trials of new drugs.
Many cancer patients simply go without lifesaving drugs instead of paying exorbitant fees, including travel expenses, the inquiry heard.
According to the Cancer Council, about one in five people in regional New South Wales are choosing to skip health appointments because of the cost.
"All my medical team advise me to move to the city where treatment assistance is available. Unfortunately, because I live in a rural area, I now have to make a choice of selling my home to continue treatment, or stop treatment and end my life," one cancer patient told the inquiry.
IPTAAS subsidies are available to patients who live in regional areas and travel at least 100km one way, or a cumulative weekly distance of at least 200km.
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