The Rural Doctors Association of South Australia says more MRI scanners are needed in regional SA.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Tony Abbott put his support behind an MRI licence being granted for Mount Gambier.
Mr Abbott said he would be “amazed” if one was not granted within 12 months but he would need to consult with the Health Minister first.
Rural doctors association’s president, Scott Lewis, said country residents needed better access to care.
“There are no MRI scanners outside of the Adelaide metropolitan area,” he said.
“Whyalla, I believe, has been provisioned to have one installed sometime this year and that was granted about 18 months ago and in that round Mount Gambier missed out somewhat inexplicably, so certainly it’s overdue for Mount Gambier also to be having an MRI machine.”
He said regional residents deserved the same access to care as city people.
“The quality of images you’re able to see and the amount of information you’re able to get from it is really huge and you can do that without any exposure to radiation unlike CAT scans and things like that,” he said.
“It’s being used a lot and it just makes absolutely no sense at all that our patients are being required to travel upwards [of] 600, 700, 800 kilometres just to have a scan done in Adelaide.”