1 December
1998
The Hon Bob Carr
Premier of NSW
Level 40
Governor Macquarie Tower
1 Farrer Place
SYDNEY NSW 2000
Dear Premier
The Physical Disability
Council of NSW is the peak body representing and
advocating on behalf of people with physical
disabilities in NSW.
The Program of Appliances
for Disabled People provides funds for equipment
and appliances for people with disabilities. The
NSW Health Department has full responsibility
for PADP with local Area Health Services
co-ordinating the distribution of aids and
appliances to people with
disabilities.
The PADP in NSW is a total
failure. People with disabilities constantly
miss out on the essential aids and equipment
they need to sustain a decent standard of
living.
People with physical
disabilities are fed up with waiting for reform
of PADP and call on your Government
to:
- double the PADP budget
immediately from $12 million to $24 million,
with further increases in each of the next
three years;
- restructure the entire
scheme - eligibility criteria, management,
accountability, and creation of an
independent complaints mechanism.
We would like to take this
opportunity to invite you to address a rally to
explain why your Government has not increased
funding and restructured PADP to meet the needs
of people with physical disabilities despite
numerous calls from the disability sector to do
so.
The rally is being
organised for January 20th at 11.00am outside
your office at the Governor Macquarie Tower
together with the Australian Quadriplegic
Association, the MS Society, the Northcott
Society, Paraquad, the Spastic Centre, and with
the support of most if not each physical
disability consumer group in NSW. The rally will
be complemented by meetings in rural
areas.
Without essential aids and
equipment people with disabilities lose
citizenship rights to participate as equals in
the community. The current state of the program
also means that additional strains are placed on
health and disability support
services.
We know of a case where
the lack of funding of an item valued at $500
has led to the need for hospitalisation as a
result of sores and lesions, at a cost of
$17,000.
We know of a case where a
child has been kept home from school because of
the unreliability of old equipment.
We have know of a woman
not being able to get to her first job interview
in three months because she could not get her
wheelchair fixed in time for the interview - she
stayed on welfare for another three
months.
And then there are the
hundreds of people who work or whose spouses
work or whose parents work and are forced to pay
for their own equipment - even when their
incomes are below what they would otherwise be
receiving if there was nobody with a disability
in the family.
Because of the lack of
funding:
- many of our members
have given up trying to get PADP and are
forced to beg from local charitable
organisations, go into debt, extend the life
of equipment beyond functionality and safety,
do without the non-discretionary pleasures of
life, eat into capital or do
without;
- those who receive PADP
often receive inferior equipment to the
detriment of their health;
- there are excessive
waiting times, assistance is not available
for either maintenance or the regularly
needed modifications of children’s
equipment;
- eligibility criteria
rule out families on low incomes and with
high non-discretionary
expenditures.
Because of poor management
of the system:
- people who apply for
PADP have no sense of whether they will
receive assistance or not, what they will
receive assistance for, and when they will
receive assistance since there is a wide
discrepancy between regions, and even at
times within the region;
- there is no complaints
mechanism available;
- there are inequities
across regions so that where you live becomes
as much a rationing technique as the
uncertain eligibility criteria;
- there is no
accountability and transparency in the system
without any centralised control or even
statistical data collection.
There have been endless
reports, reviews, enquiries, consultations, task
forces, and meetings into the system over the
years, and these have confirmed the hopelessness
of the system without leading to any meaningful
change. The most recent being the Carla Cranny
Report completed 18 months ago which has still
not been released - our understanding is that it
is still with the Department of Health. Our
members are fed up with waiting.
Please contact me on 0412
539 110 or 9639 9110 to discuss this matter
further.
Yours sincerely
John Moxon
PRESIDENT
