Northern patients call for overhaul of Ontario travel grant

By Pam Fedack, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Kenora Miner & News For many people in northwestern Ontario, seeing a specialist begins with a road trip. It can mean hundreds of kilometres behind the wheel, an overnight hotel stay and meals away from home — sometimes while the patient is undergoing cancer treatment or dealing with a different life-threatening illness. A group of northern patient advocates says Ontario’s Northern Health Travel Grant (NHTG) helps but too often leaves patients paying costs the program doesn’t cover, while also navigating a complicated application process despite being sick. Now, the Community Patient Advisory Council of the All Nations Health Partners Ontario Health Team is calling for changes to the program, beginning with reimbursement rates, and eventually giving patients a formal voice in how the…

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