Date Published:
19 January 2007 |
Consultation on the expanding hospital travel cost scheme (UK)
Health Minister Andy Burnham today announced a consultation to invite views
on the Hospital Travel Cost Scheme (HTCS) following a commitment to expand
the scheme to cover referrals by health care professionals in a primary care
setting.
The HTCS provides financial assistance to patients on a low income who do
not have a medical need for ambulance transport but require financial assistance
to meet the cost of travelling to hospital based services for NHS treatment
under the care of a consultant.
In January 2006, the Department of Health's White Paper Our Health, Our care,
Our Say made a commitment to extend the HTCS to include people who are referred
by health care professional for treatment in a primary care setting provided
they meet the existing low-income criteria.
Andy Burnham said:
" As care moves closer to people's homes, more services will be available
locally and provided by a wider range of health care professionals. However,
even with services closer to home, people will still have to travel to receive
some of their NHS care.
_ This consultation will look at how patients
can receive reimbursement for their travel expenses as more care is delivered
out of hospital and how
awareness of the scheme can be raised amongst staff and patients. We are keen
to hear ideas on how to make the system work for both patients and the NHS
to ensure people get the care they need."
" For example, at the moment an eligible patient on income support
can claim for travel costs if a hospital consultant refers them to a physiotherapist
at a health centre but the patient cannot claim if a GP referred that patient
to the same physiotherapist. The changes to the scheme and consultation will
help iron out these anomalies."
Macmillan Cancer Support, Head of Campaigns & Public Affairs, Ayesha Owusu-Barnaby
said:
" We welcome this consultation as a first step to finding out why
awareness of the scheme is so low among cancer patients and to making sure
everyone who
is eligible gets the financial help they need when they need it. We urge all
patients to make their views known to help those in need in the future."
The closing date for the consultation is Friday 13 April 2007 and changes
to the scheme are expected to come into force in October 2007.
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