Unnecessary CT Scans
By: Pamela Taylor

Dr Matthew Andrews, President of RANZCR has endorsed the concerns raised by Dr Tony Webber, Director of Medicare's Professional Services Review, about the inappropriate use of CT scans.

However, Dr Andrews said that this concern about CT should not be about blaming doctors. He said that Radiologists are always concerned to minimise all risks including radiation risks to patients from ionising imaging examinations; but the problem with inappropriate use of CT scans is as much related to Government policy as it is to inappropriate referrals. Blaming doctors and particularly GPs for requesting unnecessary or inappropriate tests is unhelpful.

Dr Andrews went on to say that successive Governments have contributed to the increasing exposure of the community to ionising radiation from unnecessary CT scans by restricting patient access to MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scans, which are a safer alternative using no x-rays and thus having no cancer risk.

The RANZCR has sought changes to this policy for more than 10 years. By limiting access to specialist referral and by not allowing Radiologists to substitute a safer or even better test, when an inappropriate scan is requested, the Government has restricted patient rebates for safer MRI scans.

Australia has one of the lowest levels of patient access to MRI amongst OECD countries, 5.6 per million population compared with the OECD average of 11 per million in 2007. We encourage the Government to expand access to MRI, to make Radiologists central to image management and to encourage improvements in the training of doctors.

Certainly there has been a deficiency of medical education to train medical students and young doctors in the most appropriate approach to imaging their patients. This is something we have raised with medical schools and pre-vocational training programs and we are keen to assist them. However, the problem of restricted access to MRI is not the fault of GPs or Radiologists and is something that the Government can fix.

A full media statement can be found here