To: Department of Health, Victorian Patient Transport Access Scheme
Help Rural Hospital Patients Get Home
Dear Department of Health,
There needs to be a change in how rural hospital patients are treated. They are expected to find their own way home once discharged from a city hospital after being flown down. Most of these rural patients have no family or support in the city they are flown to with no way to get home.
They are expected to get on public transport the day they leave hospital, relying on taxi's, trains, buses, and trams to travel hours away. Often, these people still have medication in their systems and should not be expected to travel alone.
This needs to change NOW. By supplying these citizens with a way home, you may potentially save lives. If they can be flown down, why can't they be flown back? We understand that the helicopter is an expensive cost to have daily but there are alternatives out there!
We could fly multiple patients at once with air taxi services, or use patient transport vehicles.
I will ask you this:
If your elderly mother or grandmother was flown down from a rural area and you couldn't help them get home, what would you do? Let's help our sick family members get home safe.
There needs to be a change in how rural hospital patients are treated. They are expected to find their own way home once discharged from a city hospital after being flown down. Most of these rural patients have no family or support in the city they are flown to with no way to get home.
They are expected to get on public transport the day they leave hospital, relying on taxi's, trains, buses, and trams to travel hours away. Often, these people still have medication in their systems and should not be expected to travel alone.
This needs to change NOW. By supplying these citizens with a way home, you may potentially save lives. If they can be flown down, why can't they be flown back? We understand that the helicopter is an expensive cost to have daily but there are alternatives out there!
We could fly multiple patients at once with air taxi services, or use patient transport vehicles.
I will ask you this:
If your elderly mother or grandmother was flown down from a rural area and you couldn't help them get home, what would you do? Let's help our sick family members get home safe.
Why is this important?
This is important as it will support family members who feel stranded at the hospitals. It also affects almost all of Australia's rural communities, and there are a lot of them out there.
There are approximately 15 to 25 patients are flown into major city hospitals (like those in Melbourne) by hospital helicopters every day. While exact national statistics specifically measuring how many rural patients feel stranded after hospital visits are not formally published, broad data shows it is a systemic issue; with nearly 10% of all public hospital beds in Australia being occupied by "stranded" patients.
One patient, Jane (not real name), was an elderly woman who was a fall risk. She was given medication the day she was discharged from The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne. Jane was told to go home with no support, and she had no family or friends around to help her. Thanks to a kind bed neighbour in the hospital, she was given a room at a nearby hotel for two nights before she caught a train and a bus home to Mildura. Without the help of that bed neighbour, Jane would have been expected to catch that train and bus home for an 8 hour trip before she felt fully stable. It should have been the hospital or the government that aided Jane in getting home, not another hospitalized patient.
There are approximately 15 to 25 patients are flown into major city hospitals (like those in Melbourne) by hospital helicopters every day. While exact national statistics specifically measuring how many rural patients feel stranded after hospital visits are not formally published, broad data shows it is a systemic issue; with nearly 10% of all public hospital beds in Australia being occupied by "stranded" patients.
One patient, Jane (not real name), was an elderly woman who was a fall risk. She was given medication the day she was discharged from The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne. Jane was told to go home with no support, and she had no family or friends around to help her. Thanks to a kind bed neighbour in the hospital, she was given a room at a nearby hotel for two nights before she caught a train and a bus home to Mildura. Without the help of that bed neighbour, Jane would have been expected to catch that train and bus home for an 8 hour trip before she felt fully stable. It should have been the hospital or the government that aided Jane in getting home, not another hospitalized patient.