A patient has a CT scan. File photo Photo: 123RF
Nelson Hospital has a shortage of radiologists, a high demand for services and a CT scanner in need of replacement because it has frequent outages.
RNZ revealed earlier this month the hospital's radiology department was one of those at medium risk of failing to meet international IANZ standards.
In a response to RNZ, Te Whatu Ora acknowledged the region had a shortage of specialists, demand that outstripped supply and an eight-year-old CT scanner that has had several outages in the last six months alone, some lasting up to 24 hours.
Te Whatu Ora Nelson Marlborough interim district director Lexie O'Shea said the CT scanner, which was installed in 2014, was known to fail despite regular maintenance.
She said any patients who needed scans during an outage were able to be imaged with another machine, sent to a private clinic, or as a last resort they were sent outside the district.
In a worst case scenario some patients have to travel outside Nelson for radiology services. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
The Ministry of Health target for CT and MRI scans is 95 percent of patients seen within six weeks of having a referral accepted.
"Due to a recent outage, the current wait time for CT is one week behind target date. MRI is further behind following the pandemic and the department is working hard to remove the backlog and drive wait times down," O'Shea said.
Urgent and time critical scans were always prioritised and completed first.
In the six months ending 1 November, 1861 referrals for CT scans were accepted and 1859 scans were done, while 1100 referrals for MRI scans were accepted and 794 scans were carried out.
Due to the demand for CT scanning, O'Shea said Nelson Hospital had developed a business case to replace the existing scanner and install a second, which would reduce the hospital's scanning downtime.
O'Shea said overflow and after hours reporting were outsourced to several private providers.
There had been several investments in radiology equipment in recent years, including the introduction of a $2.8 million MRI scanner in 2019 and a new fluoroscopy suite and ultrasound machines the following year.
All radiology equipment had regular preventative maintenance by engineers either once or twice a year depending on the equipment.
While IANZ accreditation was an important gauge of the quality of its radiology services, O'Shea said it was not mandatory.
The recent IANZ accreditation result identified one area of major nonconformity, the record keeping of training for its administration teams and clinical assistant roles.
It provided further information to IANZ and the non-compliance issue was closed on 9 September.