Editor:
Twenty percent of British Columbians do not have a family doctor. Those who live on the Sunshine Coast are hit with a double whammy: no doctor and no way to access the Travel Assistance Program for critical health procedures.
A case in point: A friend who lives in Gibsons needed life-saving surgery in Vancouver recently. St. Paul’s Hospital said someone had to drive him home. He booked a ferry reservation for a TAP form, assuming the hospital would give him one.
The St. Paul’s Hospital registration desk said he could get the form at the nurses’ station. The nurse there said, “You have to get it from your doctor.”
He asked a doctor he had seen in Vancouver for the form. The doctor said he seldom gets patients from the Coast, and supplying the forms would be bothersome. My friend, weak from a day in surgery, lost his reservation and paid full fare for the trip.
I asked about this on the Travel Assistance Program’s call-in line. A representative said patients should contact the hospital about getting a TAP form. She said the hospital “could” have provided it.
However, “there is no specific legal requirement that they do that.” She said there is no legal requirement for doctors to do so either.
Travel Assistance Program website says, “Your physician, nurse practitioner, or specialty clinic will provide the TAP form.” Should it say “may or may not” provide the form? That’s what seems to be happening. This must be changed.
Elizabeth Rains
Area F
