Steps to streamline PATS scheme

Health Minister Keith Wilson has stepped in to streamline Patients' Assisted Travel Scheme processes for disabled children in Karratha who make several trips a year to Perth for specialist treatment.

Mr Wilson said today he had approved the change to PATS referral arrangements to make life easier for the children and their families.

He said the local Support Group for People with Disabilities had alerted him to the particular circumstances of the children when he visited Karratha in November last year.

"PATS application forms were having to be provided each time for children undergoing treatment requiring several visits a year to their specialists in Perth," Mr Wilson said.

"Obviously this was time-consuming and cumbersome.

"In future, where a child needs to undergo a course of specialist treatment which requires more than two visits to Perth a year, one initial PATS form may be accepted to cover all the trips necessary.

"The Health Department's regional director, Jon Blackwell, will be able to grant an exemption of up to a year from the need to make further PATS applications for a particular course of treatment.

"Parents who want to seek an exemption should apply to Mr Blackwell or ask the area co-ordinator for the Authority for Intellectually Handicapped Persons, Philip Lavelle, to apply for them."

Mr Wilson said he hoped the parents and children concerned would find the new arrangement sensible and helpful.