Lithgow's chief radiographer Michelle Bostock has praised it as the biggest news for Lithgow's medical services since the CT scanner 20 years ago.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Calare MP Andrew Gee has announced that Lithgow is now on the path to being able to provide MRI services, after an announcement on Friday morning, March 29.
"This now means patients don't have to leave Lithgow for imaging," Ms Bostock said.
"It means we will have the same equipment as a major teaching hospital - it will be a state of the art imaging department."
Ms Bostock said the delivery of the licence was the main hurdle towards seeing the inclusion of the service.
The announcement begins a process that should see Lithgow with a functioning MRI department by the end of 2020.
The push for Lithgow has been sustained over several years, Mr Gee said.
"The reason we need the MRI scanner here is because it is such a life-saving piece of medical equipment," he said.
"There was hot competition around Australia to get this licence, because what this does is enable scans to be claimed on medicare so when this machine is installed in Lithgow it will do over 3000 scans every year that will be claimed through Medicare."
Mr Gee commended the work of head Michelle Bostock and the hundreds of hours she put into her submission on behalf of the hospital.
The MRI will allow people to access scans for multiple conditions, from cancer to stroke, heart disease and soft tissue issues.
"Patients who don't have the support to get them out of town often go without these life-saving scans," Ms Bostock said.
Head of the University of Notre Dame Lithgow Rural Clinical School, Professor John Dearin, said it was a wonderful technical advancement for our hospital and our community.
"The MRI scanner is particularly good for soft tissue work and very good for imaging the central nervous system," he said.
"We can use it for diagnosing a number of important cardiac conditions.
"The great thing about an MRI scanner is that people are not subjected to ionising radiation - they are not subjected to X-rays, which of course can cause genetic mutations and increase risks of cancers and so on.
"It's a very safe modality which can be used in children as well.
"It's a great advance for our diagnostic capacity here in Lithgow."
Mayor Ray Thompson said the need in the community was obvious.
"On the weekend I was approached by two people - one at the Rydal 24 hour bike race and another at the Bob Cunningham museum [show] but they both said 'Ray, we've got to try very, very hard to get this MRI licence' and here we are today having one announced," he said.
"This is an absolutely wonderful thing for our community and it will save people, in an ageing community, not having to travel so far for this particular scan."
Kirsty Horton
A journalist with 15 years of experience, Kirsty Horton has been the editor of the Lithgow Mercury newspaper and a journalist for mastheads including the Great Lakes Advocate, Nambucca Guardian News and Moree Champion. She is now a member of ACM's features and special publications team.
A journalist with 15 years of experience, Kirsty Horton has been the editor of the Lithgow Mercury newspaper and a journalist for mastheads including the Great Lakes Advocate, Nambucca Guardian News and Moree Champion. She is now a member of ACM's features and special publications team.
