Review of the Program of Appliances for Disabled People

271 Pages·2006·1.74 MB·English

NSW Health
Review of the Program of
Appliances for Disabled People
June 2006

Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation

Acknowledgements
The Review of the Program of Appliances for Disabled People was
undertaken for the New South Wales Department of Health by
PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2005/2006.
The PricewaterhouseCoopers team would like to thank all those who
took the time to participate in the consultations, share their
experiences and prepare written submissions. Without these
valuable contributions the review would not have been possible.

List of acronyms and abbreviations
A&EP Aids and Equipment Program (Victoria)
ABC Activity based costing
ABS Australian Bureau of Statistics
ADD Ageing and Disability Department
AHS Area Health Service
AIDAS Aids for Individuals in DADHC Accommodation Services
ATO Australian Tax Office
BIRP NSW Brain Injury Rehabilitation Program
CAAS Continence Aids Assistance Scheme
CACP Community Aged Care Package
CAEP Community Aids and Equipment Program (Western Australia)
CHW Children’s Hospital Westmead
DADHC Department of Ageing, Disability and Home Care
DHS Department of Human Services
DIPNR NSW Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources
DVA Department of Veteran’s Affairs
EACH Extended Aged Care in the Home Package
ELP Equipment loan pool
FTE Full-time equivalent
GMCT Greater Metropolitan Clinical Taskforce
HES Hunter Equipment Service
ILC Independent Living Centre
MASS Medical Aids Subsidy Scheme (Queensland)
MOU Memorandum of Understanding
NGO Non-Government Organisation
NSW New South Wales
OT Occupational Therapist
PADP Program of Appliances for Disabled People
PADPIS Program of Appliances for Disabled People Information System
POW Prince of Wales Hospital
RDF Resource Distribution Formula
RNSH Royal North Shore Hospital
RRCS Royal Rehabilitation Centre Sydney
SDAC ABS Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers data
SLA Service Level Agreement
SSCIS NSW State Spinal Cord Injury Service
SSUF Spinal set up fund
TBI Traumatic brain injury

Table of Contents
1 Executive Summary 15
1.1 Background 15
1.2 Major issues and challenges 16
1.3 Methodology 16
1.4 Key findings 17
1.5 Recommendations 19
2 Introduction 31
2.1 Background to PADP 31
2.2 Overview of the current administration of PADP 32
2.3 Objectives of the current review 42
2.4 Previous reviews 44
3 Other equipment schemes and providers 47
3.1 Other State equipment schemes in Australia and New Zealand 47
3.2 Other equipment purchasers and providers in NSW 56
4 Methodology 61
4.1 Consultations 61
4.2 Determination of current and future budget requirements 62
4.3 Survey of PADP Lodgement Centres and PADP OT Assessors 67
5 Determination of current and future budget requirements 73
5.1 Data sources 73
5.2 Estimated prevalent population requiring assistance or aids 75
5.3 Projected annual cost of aids and appliances 79
5.4 Impact of a range of eligibility criteria 82
5.5 Future projections of demand 85
6 Survey of PADP Lodgement Centres and OT Assessors 89
6.1 Summary of findings 89
7 Findings and recommendations 99
7.1 Overall major issues and challenges 99
7.2 Background 101
7.3 Major recommendation – one operation for NSW 103
7.4 Management and administration - discussion and recommendations
of key areas 106
7.5 Discussion and recommendations related to access and eligibility142
7.6 Discussion and recommendations related to the management of
equipment 174
8 Appendices 185
Appendix A Terms of Reference 186
Appendix B Recommendations and implementation of recommendations
from the 1998 PADP review 188
Appendix C Scheme Comparison 195
Appendix D Discussion Paper 206
Appendix E Case Studies 223
Appendix F Consultation write-up 226
Appendix G PADP Lodgement Centre and PADP Coordinator contact list 246
Appendix H Lodgement Centre Staff Survey Questionnaire 253
Appendix I PADP Occupational Therapist PADP Assessor Survey
Questionnaire 259
Appendix J Example letter 264
Appendix K Final eligibility criteria 265