Urgent funding required for regional patient transport

The Nationals Member for Euroa, Annabelle Cleeland MP, has called for urgent funding for the Royal Flying Doctor Service’s volunteer community transport program and fairer non-urgent patient transport across regional Victoria.

Ms Cleeland said people across her electorate are facing real barriers to accessing essential healthcare, with unreliable and unaffordable transport forcing vulnerable patients to miss or delay treatment.

“Every week I hear from locals managing serious illness who are now carrying the extra burden of simply trying to reach their care,” Ms Cleeland said.

In Parliament this week, Ms Cleeland highlighted locals like Belinda from Alexandra, who travels to Seymour three times a week for dialysis but was left without a ride and forced to pay $183 for a taxi home. She also noted Victor from Shepparton and Boyd from Seymour, who have lost access to subsidised dialysis transport under tighter eligibility rules.

“These stories are becoming far too common,” Ms Cleeland said.

She also stressed the heavy impact on Benalla residents, who must travel to Wangaratta or Shepparton multiple times a week because Benalla remains the largest regional town in Victoria without a dialysis chair.

A report completed through Ms Cleeland’s office by Australian Christian College student Flynn Healy found that every licensed non-urgent patient transport provider in Victoria is based in Melbourne, leaving regional patients dependent on an overstretched Ambulance Victoria.

“The RFDS program is a proven model that supports small hospitals, eases ambulance pressure and gives people the dignity and reliability they deserve,” Ms Cleeland said.

However, the program will lose its Commonwealth funding at the end of this year, placing more than 22,000 annual health-related trips at risk.

The report noted the following recommendations that Ms Cleeland supports:

• A gradual and fairer VPTAS reimbursement model rather than the current harsh 100km cut off
• Higher reimbursement rates for fuel and accommodation to match NSW and Queensland
• Expanding NEPT capacity into regional Victoria, including incentives for new providers
• Easing NEPT eligibility rules so stable but vulnerable patients are not abandoned
• A statewide expansion of the RFDS volunteer transport model

“I urge the government to fund the Flying Doctor volunteer transport service and expand non-urgent transport in regional Victoria. Regional people must not be left behind,” Ms Cleeland said.