Whakatāne's loss, Masterton's gain: The musical chairs of medical scanning

Residents from the eastern end of Bay of Plenty must still travel to Tauranga for an MRI scan. Whakatāne has waited years for a medical MRI scanner, but it has somehow ended up in Masterton. Residents from the eastern end of Bay of Plenty must still travel to Tauranga for a scan in one of its seven MRI machines, all privately owned.

Health NZ says it is working on a plan for Whakatāne - but its last one failed. June Goodhew says it has dragged on long enough. In May, the 85-year-old retired tutor was given a packed lunch at Whakatāne Hospital and sat in an ambulance headed for Tauranga and an MRI.

"I really felt sorry for her because, you know, she was in pain, said Goodhew. "From 11 o'clock till 5pm, it was quite a long day for people that are unwell. I imagine the cost of our travel, plus nurse and driver, would have been large, plus, well, not good for those in pain.

If Whakatāne had an MRI they could have just gone down the hall. "This is the futility of all this nonsense of us getting it, promising and then we don't get it. In 2014 Whakatāne Hospital got a $67 million upgrade, the government trumpeting about its "modern radiology department".

"This new building will ensure the 50,000 people living in the region continue to receive high quality health care for many years to come, said then health minister Tony Ryall. Modern - but with no magnetic resonance imaging machine for advanced body scanning. So locals tired of the 180km-round trip to Tauranga began pushing for one.

Several years later, Health New Zealand began talks with Bay Radiology, part of a big nationwide private provider RCHNZ Medical Imaging Group, majority owned by Infratil, to put its MRI in a yet-to-be built, specially designed unit at Whakatāne Hospital. Dr Victor Luca, mayor at the time, anticipated it would be installed by the end of 2024. "The territory had been defined, the building had been designed, site works were about to start. "The end of 2024 came and went, 2025 came and went.

"We were all trying to uncover what had actually gone on... obviously something went pear-shaped, said Luca. Grey Power health campaigner Dr Victor Luca Three months ago Health NZ Te Whatu Ora spelled it out to Whakatāne Action Group, which had emailed asking why the machine sat in a crate at Port Tauranga for a year. "An agreement for a lease wasn't reached and the MRI has been relocated to Masterton.

The MRI was owned by the private provider, the agency said. HNZ told RNZ it terminated the deal with Bay Radiology over site constraints due to an earthquake faultline under parts of the hospital. Authorities have known the fault was near the hospital since at least 2016. More recently, they pinned down exactly where, and that area - where the MRI unit was to be - has now become an exclusion zone for new construction. Health NZ said the existing hospital buildings were fine.