CATHERINE KING MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND MEDICARE
MEMBER FOR BALLARAT

JENNY MACKLIN MP
MEMBER FOR JAGAJAGA

GED KEARNEY MP
MEMBER FOR BATMAN

KATE THWAITES
LABOR CANDIDATE FOR JAGAJAGA

 

Residents in Melbourne’s North east will benefit from affordable access to life-saving medical scans under a Shorten Labor Government.
 
Labor will deliver a Medicare-funded MRI licence to Austin Heidelberg Repat Hospital so locals can get the scans they need close to home without being hit with high out-of-pocket costs.

This is part of Labor’s Fair Go Action Plan to strengthen Medicare and fix our hospitals.
 
The Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government has cut $183 million from Victorian hospitals – slashing $11.18 million from Austin Health alone.
That’s equivalent to nearly 17,000 emergency department visits or 27,000 outpatient appointments. It could also pay for 430 knee replacements or more than 3000 cataract extractions.
 
The people of Melbourne’s east deserve better.
 
Labor’s announcement of an MRI licence for the Heidelberg Repat Hospital builds on our commitment to deliver MRI licences to other public hospitals across Melbourne, including at Monash Children’s Hospital and Werribee Mercy Hospital.

MRI scans are used to detect and diagnose conditions that affect soft tissue – including tumours and cancer – and can mean the difference in detecting a disease as early as possible. But they only attract a rebate if they are performed on a machine with a licence.
 
They are particularly important for children and young people because unlike the alternative – CT scans – MRIs do not use ionising radiation. Children’s Healthcare Australasia says that for every 1,000 CT scans, a new case of cancer is created in an Australian child.
 
Labor has a proud record on MRIs, granting 238 licences when we were last in office. That means hundreds of communities are benefiting from the early detection and diagnosis of disease today because of Labor’s investment.
 
The Liberals on the other hand neglected this issue for most of their time in office, granting just one a year in their first five years. It has only been in recent months they have recognised their dismal failure in this space and moved to match Labor's commitments.
 
Labor’s investment in MRI licences comes on top of our commitment to invest an extra $2.8 billion in public hospitals.
 
We will reverse the Liberal public hospital cuts and ensure our emergency departments and hospital wards have the doctors, nurses and hospital staff to keep up with record demand.
 
Labor can afford to protect Medicare and fix our hospitals because we are tackling unfair tax loopholes and making multinationals pay their fair share.