The Senate Community Affairs Committee is inquiring into ‘The operation and effectiveness of Patient Assisted Travel Schemes (PATS) and requires information from the health industry, community groups and individuals.
As a member of the Community Affairs Committee, Senator for Western Australia Judith Adams, urges anyone with personal experience with PATS or affected by the challenges of living with health problems in rural areas, to lodge a submission with the committee secretariat by Friday 25 March 2007.
The inquiry has nine areas of investigation ranging from the need for a greater national consistency of PATS guidelines to the variations in patient outcomes between metropolitan and rural, regional and remote areas and the feasibility of extending PATS to all treatments on the Medicare Benefits Schedule.
The full terms of reference can be found at: www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/clac_ctte/pats/tor.htm
“I firmly believe that the Patient Assistance Travel Schemes in each state require best-practice national guidelines to ensure rural patients have flexibility in accessing appropriate specialist attention,” Senator Adams said.
“I was delighted when the Committee agreed to conduct this inquiry as I have been lobbying hard for a review since entering the Senate in 2005.”
Senator Adams confirmed that once all the submissions were received, the committee would then make as decision as to where public hearings would be held.
“If enough submissions are received from Western Australia, we have a better chance of hosting one of these hearings in Perth,” Senator Adams said.
Submissions close on 25 May 2007. Submissions can be emailed to: community.affairs.sen@aph.gov.au or posted to:
Committee Secretary
Community Affairs Committee
Department of the Senate
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
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