Productivity Commission
SUBMISSION 

dear Sir/madam

I would very much like to make the following points to the 
Disability care and support inquiry

I have read the preliminary report and I’m still very concerned that the matter of services available to the AMPUTEE section of the Australian community is still not being addresses as it should be.

1	There is still a very large discrepancy on equipment made available to various sectors of the Amputee community.

2	Care must be taken that no matter how a person has acquired a limb loss, be it as a birth defect, illness (such as radical cancer surgery) or as the result of an accident, in particular those amputations resulting from a Motor vehicle or workplace accident.

3	At present Amputees who have lost a limb as a result of some sort of accident are obviously “COMPENSIBLE” sadly, those amputees who are not compensable are at an incredible disadvantage.
Prosthetic equipment provided to non compensable amputees is mainly the type of equipment that was available during the sixties or seventies!

4	If a non compensable Amputee wishes to access the modern and MAINSTREAM technology, this can only be done at their OWN cost and as such those Amputees suffer a huge disadvantage compared to his/her compensable compatriots.

5	Under the present system of public patient Amputee funding, it is extremely difficult for a public patient Amputee to access a different prosthetics provider, if he/she should need to see, or wish to see a different provider, or indeed want to have a limb made by a PRIVATE prosthetic clinic!
This becomes even more serious if an Amputee has travelled interstate, if a problem occurs with a prosthesis whilst interstate, more often than not, the amputee is told to return to his/her home state, as there is no facility for interstate amputees to be funded under the present out-dated system,
This even happens when an Amputee has the audacity to travel to a different area in his/her own state or territory, the funding is so rigid, that for example an Amputee living in Gippsland Victoria cannot even attend a larger and hopefully better, clinic in Melbourne.

5	This is simple and blatant discrimination, any member of the public can travel anywhere within Australia and receive treatment at any public hospital or clinic EXCEPT for Amputees!
I am extremely concerned that once again, these issues of VITAL importance to the Amputee community are once again being overlooked.

Kind regards.

Peter Feenstra