Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health. Can the minister confirm that the government has granted an MRI Medicare licence to Sound Radiology in Parkside, Adelaide while overlooking 443 other applications?

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm delighted to receive a question from the member for McMahon.

I can confirm that the government has granted 53 MRI licences, and 43 have already commenced. This one is one of those 53. It was done through an independent process where applications were called for and assessed by the department.

Very interestingly, 53 were announced and 43 have already commenced. The two of them which have not yet commenced include Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, where we're awaiting upon the Western Australian government to purchase and deliver the machine which is required, and we are also waiting in Queensland for the Queensland government in relation to one of their own hospitals to deliver and to do that. That is the situation. There are 53 announced and 43 already underway, and we are waiting on the governments of Queensland and Western Australia as exemplars to deliver the final part.