At the age of four, Claire Quade has had to contend with possible anaphylaxis and cancer.
At nine months old she started suffering severe allergies but it took her parents, Lisa Masters and Tim Quade, a year to get a specialist's appointment eight hours away in Newcastle.
Shortly after that, she developed three large lymph nodes on her face.
It took them more than three months and numerous medical appointments across rural New South Wales to find out it was cancer.
"That's when we got the shock of our life — that she, in fact, had leukaemia," Ms Masters said.
In the months it took to be diagnosed, Claire had reverted to crawling because she had suffered a fractured spine and femur due to weaker bones.
Her mother said the distances they have had to travel from their farm near Trundle, in the state's central west, to seek medical care made the experience incredibly difficult.
"It was frustrating, there are no services close by," Ms Masters said.
"It's nearly an eight-hour trip to John Hunter [Hospital in Newcastle] and when she was diagnosed we were unable to drive home."
Long wait times
Getting access to a local paediatrician was even harder.
While she did manage to see a specialist in Newcastle, Claire has only just made it to the top of the waiting list in Orange, almost four years after getting a referral.
Ms Masters said it would have been unbearable if they had to rely on the service in the state's Central West.
"I'm glad it wasn't urgent for Claire to get in for that," she said.
Victims travel two hours for rape kits
The challenge to get doctors' and specialists' appointments have been laid bare in hundreds of submissions to the NSW parliamentary inquiry into remote, rural and regional health care.
People have shared their experiences of travelling hours and waiting weeks to see a doctor or visit a hospital emergency department.
One anonymous submission describes seeking medical treatment for bowel problems in mid-2019 at Broken Hill and being diagnosed with bowel cancer 14 months later.
A woman at Gunnedah said her son has had to wait two years for an endoscopy and a gastroenteritis appointment.
A submission by the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers MP for Murray Helen Dalton warned:
No GPs within 15 years in small towns
There is overwhelming support for improved access to medical care in rural and regional areas, but the future is bleak.
A submission by the Western Primary Health Network, which is the federal authority for that region, stated 41 of the area's smaller towns may not have a GP within the next 10–15 years.
"We've got an ageing GP population [and] we've had a number of practices in those towns shut down," Western PHN's acting CEO, Robert Strickland, said.
If this transpires, it will mean even longer and more expensive journeys for rural and regional residents.
Nicki Scholes-Robertson has chronic kidney disease and has required dialysis as well as a transplant.
She said the travel and accommodation costs were expensive.
The state government's Isolated Patients Travel and Accommodation Assistance Scheme (IPTAAS) reimburses eligible patients for some of these costs.
"It's $42 a night to go towards food and accommodation," Ms Scholes-Robertson said.
"That's not a lot of money to live on for that time."
The NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard has since agreed to review the IPTAAS rates.
