{"id":242134,"date":"2019-08-20T17:11:47","date_gmt":"2019-08-20T07:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=242134"},"modified":"2020-07-18T13:42:26","modified_gmt":"2020-07-18T03:42:26","slug":"patients-go-through-enough-stress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2019\/08\/20\/patients-go-through-enough-stress\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Patients Go Through Enough Stress …’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Rosemary Hansen shows Member for Nanango Deb Frecklington some of the reams of paperwork she has compiled while dealing with the Patient Travel Subsidy Scheme<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

August 20, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nanango resident Rosemary Hansen can’t understand why she has had to battle with bureaucracy – and haunt her local MP’s office – to get Queensland Health just to reimburse her Patient Travel Subsidy Scheme entitlements.<\/p>\n

Rosemary, the former secretary of the Nanango Race Club, began treatment for breast cancer in March last year.<\/p>\n

Her radiation treatment and follow-up appointments meant she has travelled backwards and forwards to Toowoomba 38 times up to June this year.<\/p>\n

The Patient Travel Subsidy Scheme provides financial assistance to eligible patients to access specialist medical services not available locally.<\/p>\n

For each of her trips, Rosemary lodged a claim for $83.16 – the amount for which she was entitled.<\/p>\n

She told southburnett.com.au<\/strong> a few of the early reimbursements came through reasonably quickly but for others she had to wait and wait … and make numerous phone calls.<\/p>\n

And when the payments did arrive, there was no way of noting which claim was being reimbursed.<\/p>\n

On some occasions action only seemed to have occurred after she had contacted Member for Nanango Deb Frecklington’s office, who went into bat on her behalf.<\/p>\n

When we spoke to Rosemary on Friday, she had been waiting for 11 weeks for her latest reimbursements.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“They told me they had processed the payment but it could take two weeks to get into my account. That would make it 13 weeks …” Rosemary said.<\/p>\n

Co-incidentally, the outstanding money appeared in Rosemary’s account early this week.<\/p>\n

Rosemary and her husband Ian are on the pension which means timely reimbursements for their out-of-pocket expenses are vital.<\/p>\n

“Patients go through enough stress without having to worry about this as well,” she said.<\/p>\n

Member for Nanango Deb Frecklington said the problems with the Patient Travel Subsidy Scheme were “beyond frustrating”.<\/b><\/p>\n

“You should not have to come to your local MP for action to happen,” she said.<\/p>\n

Mrs Frecklington said she had written twice to Health Minister Steven Miles on behalf of Rosemary so far this year.<\/p>\n

She said “many, many people” came into her electorate office in Kingaroy with the same problems but didn’t want to complain publicly about the issue.<\/p>\n

“We like the fact that Rosemary allows us to write on her behalf to the Minister,” Mrs Frecklington said.<\/p>\n

Mrs Frecklington said she was also concerned that many people who were entitled to be reimbursed for their travelling expenses when ill did not make a claim because of the stress involved.<\/p>\n

“People want to apply but they don’t because the paperwork is too onerous,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It is a failure of the system. It is a lack of priorities when dealing with our most vulnerable.<\/p>\n

“People are going through some of the most stressful and trying times in their lives. Patients don’t need this stress.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nanango resident Rosemary Hansen can’t understand why she has had to battle with bureaucracy – and haunt her local MP’s office – to get Queensland Health just to reimburse her Patient Travel Subsidy Scheme entitlements <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":242135,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[172,3],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n'Patients Go Through Enough Stress ...' - southburnett.com.au<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Nanango resident Rosemary Hansen can't understand why she has had to battle with bureaucracy - and haunt her local MP's office - to get Queensland Health just to reimburse her Patient Travel Subsidy Scheme entitlements.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2019\/08\/20\/patients-go-through-enough-stress\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"'Patients Go Through Enough Stress ...' - 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