LETTER TO THE EDITOR – RIVERLAND MRI

Dear Editor,

Last year the Morrison Government announced an additional 30 Medicare subsidised MRI services across the country estimated to provide access to important diagnostic scans for up to approximately 132,000 extra patients per year.

I wanted the residents of the Riverland to be direct beneficiaries of this initiative saving a 2-3 hour drive to the nearest service.

Your readers will re-call that over a five week period, I ran a petition, collecting signatures from across the Riverland region from people that would benefit from a Medicare subsidised MRI service.

I presented this petition, with over 4,000 signatures, to the Minister for Health, Greg Hunt and in March this year the Minister called me to give me the good news; that the Riverland General Hospital was successful in the application for one of the 30 additional Medicare licences

This week the State Government announced $4 million for the installation of the new $1.5 million state-of-the-art MRI machine and completion of a $2.5 million surrounding capital works to house the machine which is expected to be up and running by the end of 2020, as per the agreement with the Federal Government.

This is a fantastic outcome for the Riverland and a wonderful example of State and Federal Liberal Government’s working together to deliver for our regional communities.

Thank you to the Local Health Advisory Councils and the many local businesses, community organisations and volunteers who helped with the petition and of course to those who signed it.

It’s a brilliant result for the whole Riverland region.

Tony Pasin MP

Member for Barker

Media Contact: Charlotte Edmunds 8531 2466