Rural consumers - A checklist for people living in rural Victoria travelling for health care

Page content: Consumer checklists | Health services resource kit

Key questions to ask if you have to travel for health care

If you live in rural Victoria you may have to travel for health care if services are not available locally.

This is a checklist of important questions that you can ask your health care provider at different stages during your journey.

Asking questions can be hard when you are worried about your health or that of a family member. But you need clear information about travel support options in order to make decisions about your health care. This checklist will help you to explain your needs to health care providers.

Your health care journey will usually start with your GP. They may refer you to a visiting private or public specialist, to an outpatient clinic or treatment in a hospital in the regional centre or Melbourne. You may have to travel there and back a few times. You may need a short or long stay in hospital. After treatment, you will need to return home and you may need to travel to receive ongoing care from your local health care providers.

Your health care journey has three stages:

(1) Before you leave home (147kb, pdf)

(2) At the hospital (138kb, pdf)

(3) Going home (144kb, pdf)

Handy travel and support contacts to help prepare for each stage of your journey for health care.

Handy travel and support contacts (117kb, pdf)

Click on the links above and read through the questions related to each stage of your journey. You may find it useful to write down the answers as you discuss them with your health care providers.

A resource kit for health services caring for rural consumers who travel for health care

This resource kit is intended to inform, inspire and connect health services at all levels, primary and acute, rural, regional and city in their efforts in providing care to rural consumers and their families who travel for health care.

This resource kit includes initiatives by health, transport and community services. The initiatives are creative, flexible and responsive to the complex needs of rural consumers travelling for health care.

Resource kit for health services caring for rural consumers who travel for health care (489kb, pdf)

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