Fears Geraldton’s only nuclear medicine service provider could close if Medicare benefits not restored

A regional health professional is concerned Geraldton patients may miss out on potentially life-saving scans due to his practice no longer qualifying for Medicare benefits. Geraldton Nuclear Imaging is the only service provider in the Mid West city which offers nuclear medical scans, which uses small amounts of radioactive materials to detect cancers, heart disease and other illnesses in the early stages. The service has been free for Medicare patients for the past 15 years and was made exempt from having to buy expensive new equipment every 10 years. Practice owner Peter Tually said the imaging technology housed in the equipment was regularly upgraded, meaning there was no need to purchase new devices unless they no longer worked. But the Federal Government removed the exemptions that allow for Medicare benefits to be paid for services provided using aged equipment in May 2021. Instead, grants were made available to help service providers buy new equipment so they could continue to receive a Medicare benefit. But due to high operating costs — including travel expenses to deliver services to remote and regional communities — Mr Tually is unable to afford the out-of-pocket cost for the new equipment. This has resulted in the closure of his Busselton nuclear medicine service and he said he feared Geraldton could be next. “It will be the first time Geraldton patients will be forced to pay a large gap so we can remain commercially viable,” he said. “Some patients sadly won’t be able to pay and they will decline the test and likely become another rural health statistic. So unless I can raise some additional external funding, we are in a bit of strife.” Addressing Mr Tually at last week’s Federal election candidate forum, Durack MHR Melissa Price said removing the exemption on older equipment was “not an unreasonable position for the Federal Government to take”. “It was inevitable … that the time would come when that equipment would be so outdated that the Federal Government would not continue to give you an exemption,” she said. “Grants are available for 50 per cent of the cost of the purchase price of the equipment up to a maximum of $350,000. I think that is a reasonable position for the Federal Government to have taken.” But Mr Tually said his equipment was safe and of high quality, as had been determined under the Department of Health’s Diagnostic Imaging Accreditation Scheme. “The argument has always been that it is not the date of the equipment, it is the date of the technology that matters,” he said. “The imaging machine is connected to the most updated software we have. (Ms Price’s comments) makes it sound like we are using a steam engine, but that is completely wrong.”