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WQ.291/2022
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES BY DEPUTY R.J. WARD OF ST. HELIER CENTRAL
QUESTION SUBMITTED ON MONDAY 14th NOVEMBER 2022
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON MONDAY 21st NOVEMBER 2022
Question
“Further to Written Question 247-2022, the response to which stated that, in 2021, £734,158 was spent on air fares for those travelling out of the Island for medical treatment, will the Minister advise –
- how many patients qualified for a paid flight for a travel companion and, of these, how many patients –
- were under 18 years;
- were over 75 years;
- had a medical reason authorised by their consultant; or
- were patients with cancer attending a Planning Day and / or radiotherapy / chemotherapy treatment;
- the number of patients who did not qualify for a travel companion but were given discretion for a paid flight for a travel companion;
- of those patients who qualified, how many chose to travel with a companion; and
- the amount spent on flights for patients and the cost of flights for travel companions broken down by groups a(i) to (iv) above?”
Answer
General note on answers below:
Patients under the age of 18 and over the age of 75 qualify automatically by age therefore the detail provided below is retrieved by filtering the age as they are all guaranteed to qualify.
As the age groups above automatically qualify, the only patients who would qualify for a medical reason are by definition aged 18-74. However, there currently is not sufficient additional data to differentiate between qualifying and non-qualifying for a medical reason as part of the reporting from the system. We therefore cannot determine the cost of qualifying patients in this group.
- Please see table below.
Note: due to the complexity of the (iv), we have separated (iv) into three separate criteria.
Note: the figures below include medical escorts, not just travel companions. The current system does not allow us separate the date therefore further time and resources would be required to report solely on travel companions.
|
Criteria |
Total |
|
Question a) |
|
|
Number of patients who qualified for a paid flight for a travel companion |
Of a total 1520 patients, 889 qualified for a paid travel companion. Patients may have been referred more than once and required multiple flights. In total this equated to 4523 patient flights and 2284 paid travel companion flights. |
|
Of the number of patients who qualified for a paid flight for a travel companion, the number who were under 18 years |
In this age group all 263 patients qualified for a travel companion. |
|
Of the number of patients who qualified for a paid flight for a travel companion, the number who were over 75 years |
In this age group all 218 patients qualified for a travel companion. |
|
Of the number of patients who qualified for a paid flight for a travel companion, the number who had a medical reason authorised by their consultant |
408 patients between the age of 18-74 qualified for a travel companion which was authorised by their consultant. |
|
Of the number of patients who qualified for a paid flight for a travel companion, the number with cancer and attending a planning day |
|The current system does not allow us to report on this data therefore further time and resources would be required to get the data. |
|
Of the number of patients who qualified for a paid flight for a travel companion, the number with cancer and attending radiotherapy treatment |
The current system does not allow us to report on this data therefore further time and resources would be required to get the data. |
|
Of the number of patients who qualified for a paid flight for a travel companion, the number with cancer and attending chemotherapy treatment |
The current system does not allow us to report on this data therefore further time and resources would be required to get the data. |
- Please see table below.
|
Criteria |
Total |
|
Of those patients who did not qualify for a travel companion, number given discretion for a paid flight for a travel companion |
Only qualifying patients receive a paid travel companion. |
- Please see table below.
|
Criteria |
Total |
|
Of those patients who qualified for a travel companion, number that chose |
From the current data by age group: 0-17; 263 qualified patients travelled with 270 travel |
|
to travel with a companion |
companions. 75+; 218 qualified patients travelled with 163 travel companions. 18-74; The current system does not allow us to report on those who medically qualified for a travel companion therefore further time and resources would be required to get the data. |
- Please see table below.
Note: due to the complexity of the (iv), we have separated (iv) into three separate criteria.
|
Criteria |
Total Spent on Patient Flights |
Total Spent on Companion Flights |
|
Number of patients who qualified for a paid flight for a travel companion |
Spend data is based on total patients and does not separately record those who qualify for travel companions. A total of £494,302.45 was spent on patient flights, this includes both, those who qualified and those who did not qualify for travel companion. |
A total of £240,146.56 was spent on travel companion flights. |
|
Of the number of patients who qualified for a paid flight for a travel companion, the number who were under 18 years |
£82,115,85 |
£109,994.28 |
|
Of the number of patients who qualified for a paid flight for a travel companion, the number who were over 75 years |
£65,284.70 |
£33,178.43 |
|
Of the number of patients who qualified for a paid flight for a travel companion, the number who had a medical reason authorised by their consultant – this only applies to those aged 18-74 as those aged outside of that range automatically qualify. |
We pay for all patient flights if there is a medical reason. If it is medically indicated, the costs for travel companions will be paid for. However, as explained above in the general note, the current system does not allow us to report on those in this age group who have qualified for medical reasons. Further time and resources would be required to get the data. |
£92,375.53 was spent on travel companions for those patients aged 18-74 (qualified for a medical reason) – this is based on the total cost of escorts minus those aged <18 or >75. |
|
Of the number of patients who qualified for a paid flight for a travel companion, the number with cancer and attending a planning day |
Data related to patients with a companion for planning, or receiving their treatment for radiotherapy or chemotherapy |
Data related to patients with a companion for planning, or receiving their treatment for radiotherapy or |
|
|
cannot be easily extracted from the system due to how the data is currently being captured and reported on. |
chemotherapy cannot be easily extracted from the system due to how the data is currently being captured and reported on. |
|
Of the number of patients who qualified for a paid flight for a travel companion, the number with cancer and attending radiotherapy treatment |
Data related to patients with a companion for planning, or receiving their treatment for radiotherapy or chemotherapy cannot be easily extracted from the system due to how the data is currently being captured and reported on. |
Data related to patients with a companion for planning, or receiving their treatment for radiotherapy or chemotherapy cannot be easily extracted from the system due to how the data is currently being captured and reported on. |
|
Of the number of patients who qualified for a paid flight for a travel companion, the number with cancer and attending chemotherapy treatment |
Data related to patients with a companion for planning, or receiving their treatment for radiotherapy or chemotherapy cannot be easily extracted from the system due to how the data is currently being captured and reported on. |
Data related to patients with a companion for planning, or receiving their treatment for radiotherapy or chemotherapy cannot be easily extracted from the system due to how the data is currently being captured and reported on. |