Cancer Society Keen To See Action To Back Up Promise

The Cancer Society of New Zealand says Te Whatu Ora’s acknowledgement of National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme inadequacies is encouraging, but it needs to see concrete action to fix it rolled out with urgency.

In this week’s episode of Paddy Gower Has Issues, Paddy tackled issues related to cancer care including looking into the NTA scheme.

He asked Te Whatu Ora Director Rachel Haggerty whether the NTA needed to be fixed and she acknowledged that the system was “inadequate” and that it had to change. Ms Haggerty agreed the mileage rate needed to be lifted from 28c a kilometre, that accommodation needed to reflect the going costs, and that direct payment needed to be considered over the current reimbursement model.

Cancer Society of New Zealand National Office Chief Executive Dr Rachael Hart said progress was long overdue. The Society had been campaigning on the NTA issue since 2016 and the Ministry of Health had reviewed the scheme in 2018.

“What we need now is action, not more empty promises. We agree that NTA is a legacy issue – one that requires urgent attention. We will be looking for concrete progress towards a more equitable scheme in the near future, with more funding to make it fit-for-purpose. Whanau dealing with a cancer diagnosis have enough on their plate without having to worry about how they will make it to treatment.”

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