Kirsten Livermore (Capricornia, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Health Insurance Amendment (Diagnostic Imaging Accreditation) Bill 2009 amends the Health Insurance Amendment (Diagnostic Imaging Accreditation) Act of 2007. It is being introduced to provide transitional arrangements to allow practices providing non-radiology services—for example, ultrasound and a combination of non-radiology and radiology services not accredited under the Diagnostic Imaging Accreditation Scheme—to register for deemed accreditation in the three months prior to commencement of the stage 2 scheme which will start on 1 July 2010.

Stage 1 of the Diagnostic Imaging Accreditation Scheme commenced on 1 July 2008. This scheme meant that all existing diagnostic imaging practitioners offering services covered by the Radiology Memorandum of Understanding were required by the Department of Health and Ageing to register for deemed accreditation. Stage 1 of this scheme covered only radiology services. Just over 2,700 sites are participating in the stage 1 scheme. The department is monitoring the implementation of stage 1 which has been well received within the sector. Stage 1 of the scheme did not, however, include non-radiology services such as cardiac ultrasound, angiography, obstetric and gynaecological ultrasound or nuclear medicine imaging services. These account for 16 per cent of the total number of Medicare funded diagnostic imaging services performed annually.

This bill will allow a transitional arrangement for the roughly 1,400 currently unaccredited practices that are providing non-radiology services to register for accreditation and transition incrementally into the stage 2 scheme by 1 July 2010. That is the commencement date of stage 2. It is planned that all diagnostic imaging services—radiology and non-radiology—listed in the diagnostic imaging services table of the Medicare Benefits Schedule will need to be provided at a site accredited under the stage 2 scheme. Practices who have been accredited for radiology services under the stage 1 scheme will not be required to register as they will be automatically accredited until 30 June 2012.

In the lead-up to the introduction of this legislation in March last year, the department consulted with professional organisations representing the providers of non-radiology services. They were consulted about the proposals to broaden the scheme and to provide transitional arrangements. The proposal was supported by these organisations. As we have heard from other speakers, the government has introduced a system of accreditation for providers of diagnostic imaging services because it is a way of ensuring that patients receive a quality service irrespective of who provides the service or where it is provided. This gives assurance to patients and ensures value for money for the government. Gaining accreditation will guarantee that all patients will receive quality service across the board, regardless of who is providing the service or where it happens to be provided.

This is very important to me and to the people of Capricornia, my electorate. It means that Central Queenslanders will be receiving the same level of treatment as someone in Melbourne or other major capital cities. The gap between health services in Central Queensland and those in the capital cities has been made a bit smaller thanks to the Rudd Labor government. It is an ongoing battle for regional and rural members of parliament to get the medical services and medical staff we would like to have in our electorates. That was particularly the case in my electorate when our needs were ignored by the previous Liberal-National government.

Nowhere was this more evident than in the struggle to obtain a Medicare licence for a full-time MRI machine located in Rockhampton. Why is an MRI machine so important and why did we battle so long to get one? Magnetic resonance imaging uses magnetic fields to generate images to help diagnose illnesses. An MRI scanner produces an extraordinarily stable and powerful static magnetic field that combines with radiofrequency pulses and rapidly changing smaller magnetic fields to manipulate the hydrogen molecules in our bodies to generate images. It is especially effective, I am told, on soft tissue. For example, the MRI machine is useful for attaining good images of spinal, brain and abdominal lesions. As such, it is an important tool for identifying and monitoring conditions such as stroke and cancers.

This government recognises that patients and communities throughout Australia need to have access to convenient and affordable MRI services. Labor recognised the need for such valuable diagnostic equipment in Rockhampton many years ago. I am pleased to say that in February 2008 this government announced that a fixed licence for a diagnostic imaging machine—an MRI—was granted for the Rockhampton Hospital. It was a welcome announcement which honoured our election promise to the people of Central Queensland. In fact, one of the most important commitments that we made in Capricornia at the 2007 election was to grant a full-time licence for an MRI machine at the Rockhampton Base Hospital. Following the federal Labor government’s commitment, a $70 million-plus investment was made by the Queensland state government, which included a building to house the MRI machine. The MRI machine is now being operated by Queensland Health on the basis that the licence from the Commonwealth government allows the cost of the service to be billed back to Medicare.

I am very happy to say that the MRI machine has now been operating in Rockhampton for five months. It has been up and running at the Rockhampton hospital since September 2009. The official opening of the first public MRI machine in Rockhampton took place on 12 September 2009 by the Queensland Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Mr Paul Lucas. I am told that clinicians have found the MRI to provide excellent quality images which assist in the diagnosis and treatment planning of neurological and orthopaedic conditions.

The $6½ million three-tesla MRI scanner, which is one of the best in the country, will deliver an expanded service to people living in Central Queensland, doing up to 20 scans a day. It is predicted to scan between 3,000 and 4,000 patients per year. All patients receiving Medicare eligible scans are being bulk billed. This is great news for the people of Central Queensland. The MRI machine has already provided over 800 scans to Central Queenslanders and the hospital has successfully recruited two permanent MRI operators and one medical imaging nurse. As I said, the permanent licence for the MRI machine is something that we have fought long and hard for in Rockhampton at both the state and Commonwealth levels. We were ignored by the previous government, but it is fantastic that the MRI machine and the funding the Commonwealth government is attaching to it through the Medicare licence is now a reality.

Health is a very important policy area in which people are looking to the Rudd government to address some of the critical deficiencies of the previous Howard government. The history of this matter is a very good example of the failures of the previous government. It was in the lead-up to the 2004 election that Labor promised that if we were successful in winning government we would grant a licence for a full-time MRI machine at the Rockhampton hospital. Of course, we were not successful in that election, so instead the Howard government granted that full-time licence to a private sector operator. I remember at the time that I was asked by the applicant for that service to provide a letter of support. I did provide one because following the 2004 election the Howard government made it very clear that that was the only game in town. But there were problems with the level of service provided by that private MRI machine. The private sector operator put the MRI machine into a mobile unit that spent its time between Rockhampton, Gladstone and Bundaberg. In effect, Rockhampton, the major health hub in Central Queensland, only had access to an MRI machine on a part-time basis, which was completely unacceptable to me and my constituents.

It was a very anxious time for many of my constituents. Quite frequently I was told stories by local people of their wait for the MRI machine to come back into Rockhampton. They had been diagnosed with something or were concerned about a particular health condition and their doctor was anxious for them to get an MRI scan to make an accurate diagnosis but they were literally waiting for weeks for the MRI machine in the mobile truck to come back up the coast of Queensland to allow that to take place in Rockhampton. Throughout the time I was calling for a permanent MRI machine to be licensed and located in the Rockhampton Base Hospital, the Queensland government, particularly the state health minister at that time, Stephen Robertson, was also very vocal in saying that this was a priority as far as the Queensland health department was concerned. But we were ignored throughout by the then health minister at the Commonwealth level, who is of course now the Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott.

As I have said, this was something that Labor were determined to address for many years and when we got the opportunity as a result of coming into government in 2007 we took immediate steps to make sure that Rockhampton would get a licence for a permanent MRI machine. There is no doubt that this new MRI machine will save lives. It proves that this Labor government takes the health needs of people in rural and regional Australia seriously.

I also wanted to touch on some positive developments that are happening at the local university on campuses in Rockhampton, Mackay, Bundaberg, Emerald and Gladstone. The Central Queensland University has a new vice-chancellor in Professor Scott Bowman. He is absolutely determined to expand the range of courses that are offered at the university. He has a particular interest due to his own background as, I believe, a radiographer—I hope I have that right—and an academic in that particular field of medical imaging. He is very keen to provide courses at the Central Queensland University that will give graduates careers in medical imaging and as medical technicians. He is going to be very important in supporting the expansion of services not only at the Rockhampton Base Hospital but also throughout Central Queensland.

There is a very strong partnership developing between our health providers in Central Queensland and the Central Queensland University, who are working very hard to try to bring in allied health and medical imaging and medical technology courses. The university has well and truly put its money where its mouth is. It has appointed a deputy vice-chancellor for development, Professor Mark Burton, who is coming to us from Charles Sturt University where he had a great deal of success in establishing a similar direction for that university. I look forward to working with both the vice-chancellor and the deputy vice-chancellor of Central Queensland University as they take the university in this new direction that will provide a much more stable enrolment base for the university but also make sure that we have a highly qualified workforce that is home grown and able to fill positions in Central Queensland.

Coming back to the bill, I welcome the changes that the bill represents. They guarantee equality across Australia in providing these important diagnostic imaging services and patients will be comfortable to know that there is a standard of care that is being assessed, accredited and delivered. Stage 2 of the scheme will guarantee that diagnostic imaging services supported by Medicare are provided by organisations that are able to meet these transparent and specific standards. It ensures that the $2.2 billion of taxpayers’ money that funds these services is being used effectively. The government can be assured that these services are being provided by organisations that meet this stringent set of standards. The scheme has been well supported by all those in the industry, who know that this is an important way of ensuring quality of services and good value for money. I commend the bill to the House.

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