Regional WA Airfares Hurt Patients as Specialist Flights Cost More
Western Australia's regional patients and clinics say high airfares are driving up the cost of specialist care. An interim Productivity Commission report found short regional flights cost 173 per cent more per kilometre than major routes. A final report is due in April next year.
Skyrocketing regional airfares are hurting patients and clinics in Western Australia, according to residents and medical professionals who say the state's reliance on fly-in, fly-out specialists leaves country patients exposed. An interim Productivity Commission report released this week found short regional flights cost on average 173 per cent more per kilometre than major routes.
The commission found regional Australians pay excessive fares to travel within their own state. Many of those routes have only one operator. The same flights carry the medical specialists who visit regional WA.
Clinics struggle to book specialists
Latrice Porter, practice manager at the Specialist Centre in Albany, 400km south of Perth, said airfare costs are a growing problem. Locking in visiting staff is becoming harder, she said.
"Rising airfare costs, limited flight availability, ongoing airline delays and cancellations are significantly increasing the cost of providing specialist outpatient care (in regional WA)," she said.
Delays force clinics to reorganize, amend accommodation and adjust patients' schedules. "It places more strain on already stretched healthcare resources," Porter said.
Telehealth, or remote consultations, is an option but not a fit for an "aging population", she said. When her centre offers it, a nurse sits in with the patient, which takes a staff member out of action. If costs keep rising, Porter believes visiting specialists will have to pass their travel costs on to patients.
Patients pay out of pocket
Flights for regional residents are capped under a state-government-subsidized scheme. But WA's Patient Assisted Travel Scheme (PATS) offers one of the lowest fuel and accommodation rebates in the country.
Kim Simpson, a Karratha woman who has long campaigned for cheaper flights, said the burden is heaviest in the Pilbara. She has to travel to Perth for Mohs surgery, a procedure to remove skin cancers, because it is not done in Karratha.
"If it's something that you could have done in Karratha, but you don't want to wait, then PATS isn't going to cover that, so you've got to cover that fare yourself," she said.
Families feel it too. Simpson said bringing grandparents up to meet a new baby can cost "well over $2,000".
Karratha Airport is WA's busiest outside Perth because of fly-in, fly-out mining traffic. Simpson believes airlines think they can gouge mining communities. "We get treated like second-class citizens, but we're paying first-class prices," she said.
What comes next
The Productivity Commission said a lack of competition and high operating costs combine to push up fares. Its final report is due in April next year.
