Hospitals forced to rely on outsourcing CT scans has typically been done district by district, but now a new tender is out (file image). Photo: 123RF
Health authorities are moving to centralise how the public system gets medical scanning done by private providers.
Many hospitals were under such pressure they were often forced to rely on outsourcing the likes of MRI, CT and ultrasound scans.
This has typically been done district by district, with the taxpayer footing the bill.
Now a new tender is out inviting companies to bid to get on a centralised list, to do scans for an initial period of one year, with the option to roll over for another year.
It covers all four health regions.
"Health NZ participating districts do not have the capacity to provide all the radiology services needed to meet the current demand for their population," the tender said.
A source familiar with the pressures on scanning said the move may help, but might have come too late for some districts.
"It's always been bad, but it just started getting worse in the last two years," they said.
RNZ understands in Wellington, the MRI machine sometimes stood idle because there were only three technicians to run it, when there used to be seven.
Public radiology services have been bleeding skilled staff - technicians, but also specialist consultant doctors - to private clinics that paid more.
Many of the specialists do both public and private work, but the senior doctors' union has done surveys showing more of them intended to do less public work in future.
Over a billion dollars of investment has poured into new private practices, some of it from huge private equity such as Infratil, other sums from surgeons, sparking controversy two years ago about conflicts of interest.
Te Whatu Ora said the centralised outsourcing complemented rather than replaced public scanning.
"We have recently run a similar procurement exercise to align our outsourcing of surgical services to the private sector and there are likely to be similar opportunities for the providers in the future," it said.
It was about ensuring certainty of supply, it said.