Right to Information No.: RTI202425-139

Right to Information No.: RTI202425-139

Right to Information No.: RTI202425-139

Applicant: Dean Winter MP
Re: Interstate Treatment and Associated Costs

Date of Application: 21 November 2024
Date of Decision: 14 March 2025

Information Requested

An application made pursuant to the Right to Information Act 2009 (‘the Act’), received the Department of Health (“the public authority”) on 21 November 2024 and accepted on 22 November 2024.

The applicant, pursuant to s15(4)(a) of the Act, agreed to grant an extension on the application for assessed disclosure to 31 January 2025.

The information requested:

1. “For each month, for the period July 2021 – October 2024, the number of patients referred for medical treatment interstate and associated costs.

Under section 19(1) if a public authority or Minister dealing with a request is satisfied the work involved in providing the information requested would – (a) substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the public authority from its other work – the public authority or Minister may refuse to provide information without identifying, locating, or collating the information. Additionally, under 19(2) a public authority or Minister must not refuse to provide information under 19(1) without first giving the applicant a reasonable opportunity to consult the public authority or Minister with a view to the applicant being helped to make an application in a form that would remove the ground for refusal.

On 7 February 2025 the applicant agreed to narrow the scope of the application pursuant to sections 19(1), 19(2), and 13(7), which provides that a public authority or a Minister may negotiate with an applicant to refine or redirect his or her application for assessed disclosure of information.

The application was amended to specify that associated costs would only include the Patient Travel Assistance Scheme’s ‘associated costs’ – which include flight costs, accommodation costs, and ground travel. The reasons for the narrowing of this scope include that:

1. Outside of PTAS patient activity and costs we collect multiple fragments of an interstate patient journey and associated costs across various patient and finance information systems which also relies on information being returned from interstate health providers.
2. Joining the fragments of data together would require a significant amount of resources, not only to locate the correct data but to collate the data and presenting as requested in the application.
3. This task would also require someone who has a very good understanding of interstate charging policies, what data is stored where, and how the different information systems interact.
4. We also expect the data would be incomplete due to the inherent data gaps in the system as well as
   from information being spread against multiple systems, which would raise questions about the data’s
   reliability.

Application Fee

The prescribed application fee was waived in accordance with:
s16(2)(b) (the applicant is a is a Member of Parliament acting in connection with his or her official duty).

Decision and Statement of Reasons

I have decided to release three pages of information to you contained within the attached excel workbook.

Decision Made by

This decision was made by Tyson Barrett, Legal Adviser, a delegated Right to Information officer of the
Department of Health, appointed by an instrument of delegation in accordance with s24 of the
Right to Information Act 2009.

Under s43 of the Act you have the right to apply for a review of the decision. To seek a review, you must apply
in writing to the Secretary, Department of Health, GPO Box 125, HOBART TAS 7001, within 20 working days
of receiving this notice. This request can be emailed to [email protected]