Article: Sparse transport adds to health woes

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Sparse transport adds to health woes

Sparse transport adds to health woes
Adam Carey
March 22, 2012

WHEN the Craigieburn Health Centre referred single father Vincent Cuschieri's young son, Samuel, to the Royal Children's Hospital for a second opinion on why his physical and mental development was delayed, it created a new set of problems.

Mr Cuschieri, 58, does not drive a car because of his own health complaints, including being an insulin-dependent diabetic.

Father and son live in the centre of Whittlesea, more than 40 kilometres north of the hospital, and faced regular round trips of about four hours by bus, train and tram to keep the appointments.

''It's just so hard to get around up here,'' Mr Cuschieri said. ''There's nothing up here. On the weekend, there's only one bus that goes round in circles from here to Greensborough.''

The satellite suburb of Whittlesea has one bus route, which passes through on average every 45 minutes to an hour on its run between Humevale and Greensborough. The number of services was recently cut by 53 a week. The government's explanation was that increasing congestion on the roads made it impossible to keep up with the timetable.

Mr Cuschieri was referred to a local volunteer community transport service called Whittlesea Community Connect, which transported Samuel to his hospital appointments. But this also faces the risk of being wound back, this time due to a lack of money.

Whittlesea Community Connect chief executive Jemal Ahmet said the demand for community transport in Whittlesea had trebled between the 2009-10 and 2010-11 financial years. Last year more than 5000 passengers used the service.

It last year received a small portion of the $230,000 the City of Whittlesea provided to Whittlesea Community Connect, which runs several welfare services. Mr Ahmet said it cost $190,000 to run the community transport service, which also relies heavily on volunteer labour.

He said the service was now being rationed because of limited resources. ''Some people we don't provide service for, because we don't have enough vehicles or volunteer drivers,'' he said. ''People either go to their appointments or they don't, and if they miss them, their quality of life could decline quite rapidly.

''The health impacts end up costing the community a lot more money than actually investing in community transport to make sure people stay connected, reduce their isolation, and attend essential appointments.''

The Age reported last week that soaring populations in the outer suburbs had outstripped councils' ability to provide basic infrastructure such as public transport, parks and medical services. The population of Whittlesea is expected to almost double in the next 20 years.

City of Whittlesea spokesman Griff Davis said poor transport links were contributing to a host of health problems. State governments had invested almost $1 billion on transport in the past seven years, yet this had been swallowed by two major projects, the South Morang rail extension and the Craigieburn bypass.

''It's a massive investment and yet it's only a drop in the ocean,'' Mr Davis said.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/sparse-transport-adds-to-health-woes-20120321-1vk8d.html