PATIENTS HELPED TO TRAVEL FOR CARE

The NSW Government is improving access to healthcare for people living in rural and regional communities, providing financial assistance to more than 15,600 patients from the Murrumbidgee Local Health District in the past year through the Isolated Patients Travel and Accommodation Assistance Scheme (IPTAAS).
 
IPTAAS provides financial assistance to patients who need to travel long distances for specialist healthcare not available locally.
 
NSW patients have also received more money back in their pockets thanks to increased subsidies, with the average reimbursement per patient higher than ever before at $482.
 
In the 2023-24 financial year, $48,885,696 was provided in IPTAAS claims across NSW, helping  41,417 patients access specialist health treatment.
 
Reducing the financial burden for country patients to travel for their healthcare is just part of a comprehensive range of measures the NSW Government is embracing to improve access to care in our regional, rural and remote communities, including:

  • Delivering more health worker accommodation in the bush;

  • Doubling rural health worker incentives for the most critical and hard to fill positions to improve recruitment and retention;

  • Boosting doctors in our regional GP surgeries as well as hospitals through the single employer model; and

  • Deploying an extra 500 regional paramedics.

 
Quotes attributable to the Independent Member for Wagga Wagga, Dr Joe McGirr:
 
“Travelling to access health care adds stress to an already challenging situation for regional patients and their families so assistance towards the costs of travel and accommodation is an important way of helping patients get the care they need.
 
“I have been campaigning for improvements in this area, and I congratulate the government for making this support available.
 
“We know that people from regional communities often have to travel significant distances to get specialist care but sometimes financial support through IPTAAS can mean the difference between people seeking treatment or not.
 
“Reducing the financial burden of those travels can make a big difference in getting the right treatment and delivering a faster recovery.
 
“While more needs to be done to ensure rural and regional communities get the health services they need and deserve, I acknowledge the government’s commitment to improving regional health and look forward to working with them to achieve more improvements in the future.”

Joe McGirr