Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans will soon be eligible for bulk-billing at two Broken Hill medical centres, potentially saving patients hundreds of dollars and endless hours of travel interstate.
MRI machines opened at Thrive Medical and Broken Hill GP Superclinic in June last year but the clinics were unable to bulk-bill patients.
The process to obtain a Medicare licence for the procedures has been deregulated, meaning local services can be approved for bulk-billing when the changes come into effect from November 1.
Travelling costs add up
It is welcome news for Merry (full name has been withheld for privacy) and her husband, who have to travel hundreds of kilometres to Mildura or Adelaide to receive subsidised MRI scans.
She said there were many hidden and intangible costs that made the trips more stressful, and sometimes unfeasible, when her husband was too sick to travel.
"The NSW Government contribute towards the flights and accommodation through isolated patients but it still costs hundreds of dollars a night because we don't have any family there," Merry said.
"You pay $20 for a taxi … well it's $30 from the airport to the city.
"It's unfair because we're out here [and] we're so disadvantaged anyway."
Five years in the making
Thrive Medical owner Heather Pearce said obtaining the Medicare licence had been years in the making.
"We initially installed a very low-grade MRI machine over five years ago, and we were unsuccessful in getting the licence then," she said.
"Currently patients pay $260 but if they require contrast it can cost up to $350.
"Since we've had the machine, we've done over 1,000 MRI scans, so it really shows there is a huge need in Broken Hill for these procedures."
The centre's Medical Imaging Services manager Samantha Gogler has felt firsthand the strain of not having a local MRI scanner .
"My mother was very unwell for quite a few years and unfortunately she passed away in 2020," she said.
"We had the financial resources to do it but, when someone is really unwell, the last thing they want to have to do is drive to Adelaide.
"It seems archaic in some ways that we're in a town as big as Broken Hill to not have these services."
MRIs 'critical for correct diagnosis'
Broken Hill radiographer Ellie Chrisakis said MRI scans had become a necessary step in the correct diagnosis and treatment of several acute health conditions.
"[For] diseases such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's and epilepsy, the MRI scan can actually pick up certain things in your brain to show that they're there [and] it can even show whether they're active, old or new," she said.
"Without MRIs, patients go undiagnosed for ages and there are treatments now that can stop it spreading or getting worse if picked up early enough."
She said patients often waited three months or more for a bulk-billed MRI scan in major cities and, in more urgent matters, that amount of time was not always available.
"I think it's something the community needs, and we've been pushing really hard behind the scenes for this to happen."
Ms Gogler believed the benefits of being able to offer local MRI scans would spread to other areas of the community as well.
"We don't just lose health professionals with not having health services," she said.
"We lose a whole swathe of people that may have come to Broken Hill if we had them.
"It's not just health outcomes. It's the financial outcomes, the population growth and all those things that additional people coming to town will bring."
