DOCTORS, magistrates, welfare workers and teachers are spending more time negotiating the back roads of NSW and less time in hospitals, courts, clinics and classrooms because of poor transport to remote corners of the state, official documents reveal.
The documents from the NSW Department of Transport and Infrastructure, obtained by the State Opposition, also show the Government is paying more for key workers to drive, rather than fly, to the outback since air services were axed late in 2008.
According to the documents, it costs an average $100 more to transport staff by car between Dubbo - the major centre in central NSW - and Bourke, Cobar and Walgett, than by plane.
The Opposition spokesman on western NSW, Kevin Humphries, said flying between Dubbo and Bourke was $512, while driving cost $620; flying between Dubbo and Cobar was $476, and driving $565; and flying between Dubbo and Walgett was $443, and driving $549. The car journeys also took between five and six hours, compared with less than an hour by air.
''The costs are higher and productivity is effectively halved,'' Mr Humphries said. ''Key people - your medicos, your magistrates, your mental health and welfare professionals - are baulking at the very long travel times.''
Under Government guidelines, the car travel subsidy is 27.6 cents a kilometre and staff have to stay overnight, at a cost of $199.45.
The Government is negotiating with an unnamed airline to restore flights to Bourke, Cobar, Walgett, Coonamble and Lightning Ridge.
''While Transport and Infrastructure has yet to receive any formal licence application for the affected routes, the Government has commenced discussions with this airline about reinstating some of these services,'' the assistant Minister for Transport, David Borger, said in an email.
Mr Humphries wants the Government to underwrite a new service by guaranteeing to purchase a block of tickets.
He says Government agencies had said they could fill 2471 seats, with Cobar mining companies buying 900 to 1000 tickets a year as well. ''Each flight would have a substantial number of presold seats, minimising the commercial risk for the operator,'' he said.
Mr Borger said it would be unfair to change the terms of its negotiations with the airline.
Joanna Barton, the manager of Outback Eye Service, which provides ophthalmology services to remote areas in NSW from Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick, said her organisation made at least 52 field trips a year and travelling by car had dramatically increased their workload.
The six eye surgeons she managed now had to fly to Dubbo, then drive several hours, work until 9pm, and leave at noon the next day to return to Dubbo for an afternoon flight to Sydney.
She also said remote communities had to rely more on the Royal Flying Doctor Service for routine specialist visits.
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