Resmed Escape in Australia

A pensioner friend of mine has recently been diagnosed with sleep apnea.

After a sleep study but no titration he was trialled on a ResMed S8 AutoSet. On the basis of these results he has been “given” a ResMed S9 Escape with the pressure set to 11.

It is now proposed he has a another sleep study in December that will cost someone (Us the tax payer) about $1000, where if he was given an S9 Elite at the additional cost of about $100, or an AutoSet, the recorded data would have given a reasonably competent person the information required to ascertain the effectiveness of his treatment. (He didn’t show significant issues with SPo2 in his initial study).

He doesn’t have the option to upgrade his machine unless he purchases it himself at full cost.

Is this just the stupidity of the Tasmanian health authorities, or is it an Australia wide issue, or am I missing something.

The ResMed Escape is ResMed's basic CPAP machine that only records compliance data and no Clinical Efficacy Data.