Promised hospital scanners $25m over budget and four years late

A Labor election pledge to give eight Victorian hospitals new specialist scanners is $25.7 million over budget and running four years late.

The bungled rollout has prompted calls to prioritise the critical technology for regional and rural areas.

Before the 2022 state election, Labor promised $44 million to purchase new Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanners across eight hospitals, four of them in regional Victoria.

The devices are capable of scanning cellular changes and can be used to detect cancers, heart disease and other conditions earlier than other machines.

But the latest state budget revealed this program would now cost $69.6 million as a result of unspecified “project cost increases”.

Previous budgets estimated the project would be completed by the end of this month. It is now forecast to be finalised by June 2030.

One scanner has been provided to the Northern Hospital, and Goulburn Valley Health this year received confirmation they would receive funding to have their new scanner up and running by 2027.

But Warrnambool Base Hospital, Ballarat Base Hospital, Sunshine Hospital, Frankston Hospital, Werribee Mercy Hospital and Wangaratta Base Hospital are still waiting.

Warrnambool patients are travelling to Geelong and Melbourne for these scans because of the delay, regional Liberal MPs Roma Britnell and Bev McArthur have warned.

Opposition Leader Jess Wilson said Labor was failing to deliver on its election promise.

“This broken PET scanner promise means poorer health outcomes for Victorians across the state and is yet another real-world consequence of Labor’s decade of financial mismanagement,” she said.

“Only my Liberal and Nationals team has a plan to clean up the books and invest in the essential services Victorians need and deserve – including our healthcare system.”

A Victorian government spokesperson said: “The installation of PET scanners within our hospitals is complex and requires extensive planning to minimise disruption to patients and staff.

“The delivery of a number of these machines is aligned with major hospitals upgrades or redevelopments, some of which are still in construction.”

Australian Medical Association Victoria president Dr Simon Judkins said diagnostic machines were important for any growing community and vital in regional and rural Victoria.

“It’s hard enough for people in regional and rural areas to get access to oncology care, but then having to travel to get these vital scans is such a burden. It costs a lot of money to do the travelling, it disrupts family.”

Judkins said the state government should consider prioritising scanners in these areas, focusing on metropolitan services after the regions were covered.

“We seem to be filling up metro areas with new tech, and regional rural areas seem to be a second, he said.

“This is about equity and access for regional rural areas, and again we seem to be playing second fiddle.”

PET scanner funding announced for Goulburn Valley Health in May included $7.1 million to support the operation of the machine from 2027.

At the time, chief executive Matt Sharp said the device would have a significant impact on people across the region.

“It means local families can access advanced diagnostics without the burden of long-distance travel, helping them stay connected to their support networks and community when they need it most,” he said.

Concerns have previously been raised that there were not enough staff to operate the machines as they were rolled out across the state. In 2022, The Age highlighted that record demand and workforce shortages of radiologists, radiographers, medical-imaging technologists and nurses had combined to blow out wait times for almost every type of scan.

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