Hundreds more sick Aucklanders are being given fast access to scans at privately owned clinics under a taxpayer-financed scheme.
GPs have welcomed the move. It will relieve pressure on ultrasound scanning at Middlemore Hospital, where delays for the diagnostic scans for conditions such as gallstones and liver problems had become too long.
The Counties Manukau District Health Board has set aside $500,000 to pay for scans of patients sent directly to private clinics by GPs.
The cash top-up builds on the scheme already funded by the Counties Manukau and Auckland DHBs that allows GPs to refer patients who meet clinical criteria to private clinics for x-rays or ultrasounds - or directly, without first seeing a specialist, to the DHBs' own radiology departments for MRI and CT scans.