The Iowa Cancer Consortium and Iowa Department of Public Health have teamed up to create the COVID-19 Cancer Patient Transportation and Lodging Initiative. This $40,000 grant initiative was created to help cancer patients who are struggling to pay for transportation and lodging for their treatments. As health care systems shift their focus toward fighting COVID-19, they are changing how and when cancer treatment and follow-up visits are carried out. This can lead to cancer patients seeing a higher risk of infection if they miss a cancer treatment or medical appointment. Iowa Cancer Consortium Executive Director Kelly Sittig says through connections with Casey’s General Store, various hotels in Iowa City and Des Moines, and transportation companies, cancer patients will be able to afford gas, a place to stay, or retrieve a free round trip by cab to and from their treatment centers. 

Sittig says even though this program will only last two months, support and aid for cancer patients will continue, “The great news is that we’re working with partners at the American Cancer Society and have been working with them and with public transportation providers for a couple of years now to build up collaborations, develop networks, and start to put new pieces of infrastructure into place across the state to work on transportation and lodging, and transportation specifically as a bigger issue. Transportation is an issue for cancer patients now in response to COVID-19, and they are incredibly vulnerable, but the truth is transportation and lodging are issues for cancer patients always.” Sittig says patients should work with their healthcare provider and with social workers to see if they are eligible or have access to these services.