Simeon Brown Photo: RNZ / Nick Monro
The government has announced plans to replace nearly a third of diagnostic scanners in hospitals over the next three years at a cost of $108 million.
Health Minister Simeon Brown it would deliver 32 new and replacement CT, MRI, and SPECT scanners across the country, with an extra six already committed through hospital redevelopment projects - bringing the total to 38.
Of the 38, about 31 were replacements, while the seven new scanners would go to communities in Northland, Counties Manukau, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay, Palmerston North and Porirua.
Three of the new CT scanners will be cutting-edge photon-counting models, including one at Kenepuru Hospital.
The money was coming from Health NZ's depreciation budget and health capital envelope - which was set aside for replacement and new equipment, and part of the agency's baseline funding.
The programme was expected to allow an extra 32,000 thousand CT scans and 6800 MRI scans each year, Brown said, thanks to a combination of more machines, and more efficient tech.
"Good news to have the additional capacity but also modern equipment is more reliable for the clinicians and it also means that they can do more scans because it's modern equipment.
"I think it's a 5 percent boost in terms of the [additional] scans ... as we announced in the Diagnostic Investment Programme a few weeks ago it's also about making sure we're maximising what's delivered across the public system and also outsourcing where required to get through waiting lists."
A photon-counting CT scanner at Keneperu Hospital. Photo: Health NZ Te Whatu Ora
"The new technology provides clearer images and greater diagnostic accuracy, while modern software makes them easier to operate."
Work was under way to recruit the workforce needed to operate the machines, he said.
"Training, more clinicians, making sure that we're able to recruit them into New Zealand - that's all part of the plan to make sure that New Zealanders have access to timely, quality, diagnostic services.
He said it would be possible to staff the increase from New Zealand's domestic workforce, and pushed back on the suggestion the investment was just business as usual.
"Look, we've been left with huge challenges left behind by the previous government, with scanners which were breaking and needing replacement. We're getting on and getting that job done because ultimately we're focused on frontline services, they were focused on rearranging a bureaucracy.
"There were big backlogs across the health system that we have to focus on - wait lists grew dramatically under the previous government - as seen in the health data that we've been releasing."
In September, Labour pointed to a report showing scanning services were becoming more expensive under the coalition, attributing higher costs and extra difficulty to hiring freezes, ageing equipment, and staff burnout.
The party's health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall at the time said the strategy of outsourcing services to private hospitals was draining skilled staff and funding from the public system.
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