IT WAS the question that tugged at the heart strings of the nation, but Jane Kibble of Tamworth didn’t get any answers.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
“When it’s a matter of life and death, why do rural Australians have
to accept diminished access to treatment?”, she asked a panel of our most prominent, regional Australian delegates and business people.
“I believe that they heard it, but I don’t believe they answered it,” Ms Kibble told The Leader yesterday.
“Fiona Simson was very empathetic about it and clearly understood what I was saying, but no one really answered the issue why people in situations like mine have to travel significant distances to access health services.”
Ms Kibble is an active campaigner for health services following a diagnosis of hepatitis C that left her severely ill.
While she’s since been given the all clear, she says there was a point where things “turned really bad” and she was unable to access potentially lifesaving treatment, but not without the persistent efforts of her dedicated local doctors and support staff.
“All I needed was access to drugs – that was all I needed,”she said.
“There were drugs becoming available but weren’t on the PBS yet. There were drugs that the government was in negotiations to have released in Australia.
“And the only place I could get access to these was in Sydney.”
“My doctor here in Tamworth tried really hard to get me on to the compassionate access program. I know he did.
“But no one cares if you’re outside Newcastle, Sydney or Wollongong.”
Ms Kibble however admitted her question could have been one of the most unanswerable of them all.
“How do you ask someone a question of who lives and dies? How do you expect them to be able to answer that?
“But where do you draw the line on who is able to access top quality services and who isn’t?”