Border kidney patients forced to travel to Wangaratta or Melbourne to get vital dialysis treatment have been reassured by the Victorian government that efforts are being made to ease their difficulties.
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The Health Department told The Border Mail it had earmarked $250,000 in funding to expand dialysis capacity in the region, a figure Border health advocates have labelled "a joke".
On Thursday, The Border Mail reported some kidney patients who can't get local access to dialysis treatment and find the journey to Wangaratta or Melbourne too difficult are instead choosing to "let nature take its course" and dying.
Albury Wodonga Health, when asked how many Border kidney patients were forced to travel to Melbourne and how many are on the waiting list for treatment, referred the query to the Health Department which did not answer the questions.
"Keeping travel times for treatment as short as possible is always a priority, and every effort is made to ensure that patients receive the care they need, as close to home as possible," a Health Department spokesman said.
"To help ease the burden on regional patients and their carers who need to access specialist medical care, our Victorian Patient Transport Assistance Scheme offers subsidies for transport and accommodation.
"Demand for kidney and dialysis services in the area has increased in recent years due to the rising population and an increase in the proportion of older Victorians living in the region - that's why we're working closely with Albury Wodonga Health to improve access."
The spokesman said the department "continues to support Albury Wodonga Health to explore options to expand dialysis capacity in the region" and that it had $250,000 in funding to plan for such an expansion.
Better Border Health's Michelle Cowan said it was "shocking" to hear that patients needing life-saving dialysis could not get the treatment they need in the region.
"It is offensive that the government has offered a token $250,000 to plan for an expansion; it is cynical window-dressing and does not address the urgent shortfall of critical life-saving care needed now," Ms Cowan said.
"It's heartbreaking to think that the choice is to die rather than travel for treatment. No one will be satisfied with glib throw-away lines from the state government.
"Serious inadequacies of our health service have been shrouded in secrecy for too long - we need AWH to step up and tell it as it really is.
"It seems we are invisible to the NSW and Victorian governments - the health needs of people in this region have been overlooked for far too long - and the shocking reality is that we are paying for it with our lives."
The Health department spokesman said patients from the region with failing kidney function are initially sent to the Royal Melbourne Hospital to be seen by a renal specialist who can assess and advise them of treatment options.
"When a patients' closest facility for maintenance renal dialysis does not have capacity, they will be referred to the next closest facility - such patients can request to be moved to a facility closer to home and be placed on a preferred location wait list," the spokesman said.
"Planning is underway to increase this number," the spokesman said.
