Tuesday, 13 May 2025

Patient transport

Tim BULL (Gippsland East) (19:03): (1123) My adjournment tonight is to the Minister for Health, and not for the first time the action I seek is for her to fix the broken Victorian patient transport assistance scheme, or VPTAS as it is known. Patients in East Gippsland are still waiting five months to be reimbursed for travel that they made to essential medical appointments. Most of these people have multiple reimbursements outstanding. There are long gaps between when the claims are submitted and when the patients are notified that their application has even been received, let alone processed. When payments finally come through there is no clear reference as to which trip they relate to, so for patients to sort out what they have been reimbursed for and what is still outstanding is indeed a nightmare. Patients have also been made to feel like a nuisance just for following up on the reimbursements that they are entitled to. One resident was told quite bluntly by a staff member, ‘If I didn’t have to take your call, I’d be able to process the claims faster.’

Here are some examples of the situations. A constituent travelled to see a specialist on 5 December – an appointment in Melbourne, 5 December; the claim was submitted the following day, 6 December; VPTAS did not confirm receipt of that application until 19 February. Why does it take nine weeks for a patient just to be notified that their claim has been received? And then the payment was not paid until 8 May – 8 May. This patient still has other claims outstanding that they have not been reimbursed for. Another resident, who I have raised an issue on behalf of previously in this chamber, has said that they finally got their payment, but now their second one has blown past the 12-week timeframe. It is just simply not good enough.

East Gippsland residents and many in rural and regional Victoria face enough barriers to get to their medical appointments without having to put up with these delayed reimbursements that they are entitled to. The government is expecting patients to carry the costs as to what is rightfully owed to them, all at the same time as increasing taxes in a whole range of areas on these very same people. The minister has committed to fixing this in the past; it has not happened, and I urge her to make sure this is fixed properly and country patients are reimbursed on time.