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.<\/p>\n
Health NZ says it is working on a plan for Whakat\u0101ne – but its last one failed.<\/p>\n
June Goodhew says it has dragged on long enough.<\/p>\n
In May, the 85-year-old retired tutor was given a packed lunch at Whakat\u0101ne Hospital and sat in an ambulance headed for Tauranga and an MRI.<\/p>\n
A second woman sat up front.<\/p>\n
“I really felt sorry for her because, you know, she was in pain,” said Goodhew.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
If Whakat\u0101ne had an MRI they could have just gone down the hall.<\/p>\n
“This is the futility of all this nonsense of us getting it, promising and then we don’t get it.”<\/p>\n
![\"Whakat\u0101ne](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4KBXYQH_Screenshot_2025_02_15_at_2_24_42_PM_png.jpeg\")
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Whakat\u0101ne Hospital.<\/p>\n
Screenshot \/ Google<\/p>\n
‘Something went pear-shaped’<\/p>\n
In 2014 Whakat\u0101ne Hospital got a $67 million upgrade, the government trumpeting about its<\/a> “modern radiology department”.<\/p>\n “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.<\/p>\n Modern – but with no magnetic resonance imaging machine for advanced body scanning.<\/p>\n So locals tired of the 180km-round trip to Tauranga began pushing for one.<\/p>\n 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 Whakat\u0101ne Hospital.<\/p>\n Dr Victor Luca, mayor at the time, anticipated it would be installed by the end of 2024.<\/p>\n “The territory had been defined, the building had been designed, site works were about to start.”<\/p>\n “The end of 2024 came and went, 2025 came and went.<\/p>\n “We were all trying to uncover what had actually gone on … obviously something went pear-shaped,” said Luca.<\/p>\n Grey Power health campaigner Dr Victor Luca<\/p>\n Supplied<\/p>\n ‘Relocated to Masterton’<\/p>\n Three months ago Health NZ Te Whatu Ora spelled it out to Whakat\u0101ne Action Group, which had emailed asking why the machine sat in a crate at Port Tauranga for a year.<\/p>\n “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.<\/p>\n HNZ told RNZ it terminated the deal with Bay Radiology over site constraints due to an earthquake faultline under parts of the hospital.<\/p>\n Authorities have known the fault was near the hospital<\/a> since at least 2016.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Health NZ said the existing hospital buildings were fine.<\/p>\n The Whakat\u0101ne Action Group said the agency had been helpful lately, but questioned why it did not find a suitable site in the first place.<\/p>\n Bay Radiology declined to comment about Masterton getting the machine or what it said were “‘recollections, or assumptions”.<\/p>\n “We appreciate the community’s interest in this issue and understand the frustration many people feel,” the company said in a statement.<\/p>\n “For some time, Bay Radiology has been seeking to work with Health New Zealand on an MRI service for Whakat\u0101ne.<\/p>\n “While we haven’t reached an agreement on getting the MRI established yet, we hope we can progress this partnership opportunity to expand diagnostic imaging for the people of the Eastern Bays.”<\/p>\n Wairarapa Hospital in Masterton.<\/p>\n Supplied \/ Google Maps<\/p>\n New business case – but staffing hurdles<\/p>\n Asked if the Masterton machine was available for scans it funded in Wairarapa, HNZ said it did not know.<\/p>\n “The machine is privately-owned, as such we aren’t privy to its current location or if it’s being used in public or private care.”<\/p>\n Luca has written<\/a> twice in the local Beacon about what he calls “an absurd situation”.<\/p>\n “My question is how the **** you get to the point of putting spades in the ground to be derailed by an earthquake fault that was known about in 2015?”<\/p>\n Health New Zealand said a new business case for MRI options for the eastern Bay community would be completed within the next three months.<\/p>\n It declined to be interviewed.<\/p>\n ‘Wage and workforce competition’<\/p>\n Staffing may still get in the way of the plans.<\/p>\n While HNZ had a new strategy to create a single, nationwide public radiology service, it had fewer than 350 radiologists to work with and increasingly they were spending more time in private clinics, according to workforce surveys. Technicians – MITs – were also in hot demand.<\/p>\n “We now have significant wage and workforce competition from private radiology for MITs that specialise in CT and MRI,” said Health NZ on its website<\/a>.<\/p>\n “This has led to some centres not operating public MRI machines due to workforce shortages.”<\/p>\n The government this month passed a law<\/a> making it explicit for Health New Zealand to work with private healthcare providers.<\/p>\n On the public front, Hawke’s Bay hospital got a $35m-plus radiology upgrade last year.<\/p>\n On the private, RHCNZ has been targeting growth in “under-served regions, with plans to expand imaging services into W\u0101naka, Masterton, Palmerston North and Rangiora”, according to Infratil’s annual report<\/a>. It did 10,000 more scans in 2025-26 than the previous financial year.<\/p>\n ‘We … apologise for the inconvenience’<\/p>\n![\"Grey](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4K4JD7G_20250709_123131_1_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Wairarapa](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4KSCYIX_wairarapahospital_JPG.jpeg\")
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