Critical health care has been denied to residents of regional NSW due to delays in processing exemption requests and administration errors made on this side of the border.
Stephanie Hancock missed a cardiologist appointment in Canberra this week, notified hours after her appointment was due to start her exemption request was denied.
The Narooma resident had applied to travel with her husband Ross Arnold a week before her appointment in the ACT.
Ms Hancock received a request for additional information four days after submitting her application, despite including appointment details and a letter from her cardiologist.
Having not heard back after providing the extra paperwork, the pair had no choice but to stay at home and miss the appointment.
Diagnosed with a heart anomaly earlier in the year, Ms Hancock now faces an anxious wait until she can get to the next available appointment.
Ms Hancock said her experience was particularly frustrating given ACT Health had been operating within the complexities of the pandemic for more that 18 months.
"I know they've been inundated but it's happening to everybody," she said. "Maybe they need to look at more appropriately staffing the department so that these things can happen more efficiently."
NSW Cross Border Commissioner James McTavish said his office had been contacted by a number of people who had been unable to access the medical treatment they needed to out of Canberra.
While people within the border bubble had a standing exemption to enter the ACT, people further afield should receive an exemption for the purpose of accessing time critical medical care, Mr McTavish said.
"We're aware the exemption process for people is pretty onerous and at times we've been advised that people have not had the response in a manner that they would have otherwise liked," he said.
Mr McTavish said the commission had engaged repeatedly with the ACT on this issue and had been given assurances that critical medical care could be accessed.
He said he had received reports of people being rejected on the grounds the medical care they sought in the ACT was available in their hometowns.
"We know that often people living outside that defined border region have few options for accessing medical care, so it does make it very difficult," he said.
ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said the exemptions team had "done a real blitz and got right through their exemption requests" this week.
She said the process took into account the urgency of the appointment and the area the individual was travelling from, as well as a range of different factors.
"Sometimes people's requests don't get processed in time because of all of these processes," Mr Stephen-Smith said.
After speaking to The Canberra Times on Thursday, Ms Hancock has advised a member of ACT Health has called to acknowledge a mistake was made. She will now be provided an exemption next month. Her husband was still waiting.
