Grievance Debate

Regional Health Services

Mr TELFER (Flinders) (15:10): I rise today to speak about one of the most important subjects to my community of Eyre Peninsula and the West Coast, and that is regional health delivery. As the member for Flinders, I have been especially concerned with what seems to be a lack of attention and a lack of awareness from this Labor government and this minister about the unique health challenges that are faced by regional South Australians and the level of health care that we need for sustainable communities. We need a health system in our regions that is suitable for our needs both now and into the future.

We need proper GP services within our regional areas if we are to truly maximise the opportunities that we have. I, for one, have been a strong advocate and I sure hope that the federal and state governments can consider some of the initiatives of the Northern Eyre Peninsula Health Alliance and give some funding to deliver some of these projects. This alliance sets out some of the unique community health needs faced by their communities across the northern Eyre Peninsula and also some of the steps and programs that could be put in place to deliver on those health needs within regional communities.

Obviously the ideal for health delivery is to do it as close to home as possible, but those of us who live in regional South Australia know that at times it is necessary to travel to get to that health care, especially specialist care. That is why I want to speak today on the concerning and, from my perspective, unacceptable state of affairs currently with the response times of the Patient Assistance Transport Scheme, known as PATS to those of us who use it.

I am calling on the health minister to act swiftly to put more resources into the administration of that scheme to ensure that waiting times are back to where they should be. Health patients from within my electorate in particular rely on an effective PATS system, as the specialist health delivery within my community is very limited, and thus those patients have to travel a significant distance, usually to Adelaide, which is 500-plus kilometres away, to receive that care. I note the health minister's response to a question during the last sitting week's question time:

If there are issues in terms of the processing time, then we will look into that with some urgency and take what appropriate action needs to happen.

I am here to say that my office has received a significant escalation in community concerns in recent weeks on the extended response times, with reports of patients waiting several weeks, up to several months, for any response to their PATS applications. Through the assistance of my office, a follow-up process has been put in place for many patients, and they have received correspondence from PATS officers admitting that the wait time for processing amounts to several weeks. They complained of workload and they complained of the structure within the system. Several weeks and up to several months should not be acceptable for response times for these PATS patients.

I also have many constituents who are waiting for multiple PATS claims to be returned, with further upcoming medical visits necessary soon. We are talking about several hundred dollars for each overdue claim, and if you multiply that for patients who have several claims outstanding, then you can soon see why this is a significant issue for individuals.

With the cost-of-living crisis being faced all around our state, especially pointed within regional areas, with such a considerable issue that we are all facing, some patients who are waiting for these PATS claims to be returned, especially those who are waiting for multiple claims, are seriously considering whether they can afford the significant up-front cost of the travel necessary for that treatment. This is not me being alarmist; these are stories which I hear regularly from members of my community.

I do not even have time today to speak of the need for a review into the adequacy of the accommodation allowance, the paperwork process which is in place or the transport flexibility needs for my community, but there is an obvious backlog of claims within the PATS system currently and we still have not received an explanation by the minister as to the reasons why. What I do know is that this is a significant issue for my community, thus I am imploring the minister: allocate more short-term resources into the processing of these claims. These PATS arrangements are in place for the most isolated people within regional South Australia, and the government should be doing what they can to expedite this delayed process.