Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to talk this evening about an important investment for Tasmania’s health system. It was just a few weeks ago that I stood with my federal colleague, the member for Denison, and also my state colleague, the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Lara Giddings, to announce funding for Tasmania’s first public PET scanner, which is to be installed in the Royal Hobart Hospital. The Rudd government has provided $3.5 million for this new state-of-the-art public PET scanner. The Tasmanian government is also contributing $3.7 million to upgrade the area where the machine is to be installed. This diagnostic equipment will enable the Royal Hobart Hospital to operate a tertiary oncology unit with daily access to PET-CT scans for the first time. We have delivered on yet another election commitment to provide this service for the state of Tasmania and the PET scanner will make a difference for those people who are awaiting cancer diagnosis. The machine will ensure that Tasmanians are able to access the latest diagnostic tools at their local public hospital. The PET scans will also provide important assistance to clinicians in the early diagnosis of cancers, as well as neurological conditions and cardiovascular disease. The machine will have the new time-of-flight technology. The scanner will also be used for clinical research through the collaborative partnership that was recently established between the Menzies Research Institute and the Royal Hobart Hospital. This is a win for the people of Tasmania and we have delivered on what we promised them in the 2007 election campaign.