Disability Rights Advocacy Service opens Mount Gambier office following steady increase of disability discrimination

A national disability advocacy group has blasted a regional health network for leaving a morbidly obese amputee “stranded with no option” and unable to access important medical treatment.

Blasting the NDIS as a “Macca’s model”, a national disability advocacy group will be reopening a regional office to help close the divide between regional and metropolitan disability services.

There has been a steady increase in the number of South East residents living with disability who have experienced discrimination, according to the Disability Rights Advocacy Service.

Disability advocate Kiri Baker said in August a woman who was both morbidly obese and an amputee was denied basic wound care.

Disability Advocate Kiri Baker and Disability Rights Advocacy Service chief executive David McGinlay outside their new Mount Gambier office. Picture: Supplied

“She was trying to access wound care at Community Health which they refused,” Mrs Baker said.

“They also refused access to treatment in her own home due to the cleanliness of her house.

“She was stranded with no option at all for medical treatment she had to rely on family members to provide the wound treatment that she needed.”

Mrs Baker said she was told by hospital staff their staffing ratios would not “support her coming in” and “their policies prevented them from going to the house”.

“I understand the fact that there was a risk assessment done in the home and they wouldn't go to the house, which is fair enough.

“However, the fact that they refuse care at the hospital due to a lack of staff is just not good enough.”

A spokesman from the Limestone Coast Local Health Network said risk assessments were completed for “clients affected by obesity to ensure services can be delivered safely”.

“In cases where a person is affected by extreme obesity, specialised equipment is needed to support their safety and that of our staff,” a spokesman said.

“In some cases there is a need to refer patients to a metropolitan hospital for specialised care.

“For patients who require travel to a metropolitan hospital, we coordinate transport on their behalf in cases when this could present a barrier to their care.”

Regional NDIS recipients have been critical over the scheme’s inability to accommodate its regional clients.

Ruth Mott is calling for greater flexibility in the NDIS. Picture Arj Ganesan

Mount Gambier’s Ruth Mott, who suffered a severe spinal injury in 2019, had challenged an NDIS decision to cut her support hours by 75 per cent.

Ms Mott said her appeal is about to be finalised and there had been a slight increased to her reduced hours, but still lower than what she had.

Chief executive of Disability Rights Advocacy Service David McGinlay said insecure funding models had prevented and hamstrung both NDIS providers and disability advocates from recruiting and retaining staff.

“Us as an example — we’re grant funded so up until the most recent funding agreements — I could only recruit people for a six-month period with no guarantee of ongoing employment,” he said.

“If you look on the other side of the NDIS, under the Liberal government, they we’re spending upwards of $51m a year on external legal counsel to represent the NDIS.”

Mrs Baker will be opening the Mount Gambier Disability Rights Advocacy Service office on October 4.