Cancers undetected due to scan costs
Cooly first out of the Q&A blocks
COOLANGATTA residents will today have the chance to ask questions about how the temporary beach volleyball stadium will impact their lives during next April’s Commonwealth Games.
The Gold Coast City Council will today hold the first of 40 community consultation sessions about the Games.
The Coolangatta session runs from 4pm to 8pm at the CWA Hall in Griffith St. Residents can ask council, state government and police any questions about how the Games will effect their area.
“The temporary stadium to be built at Queen Elizabeth Park on Marine Parade will host up to three sessions per day for seven days of GC2018,” a flyer about the session reads.
“Temporary changes to access and traffic will occur near the venue in the lead up to and during the Games.”
Mayor Tom Tate said: “The Get Set Gold Coast team will ensure businesses and residents get the information they need so they can plan ahead, minimise inconveniences and maximise their Games experience.”
The next Coolangatta session will be on Saturday from 9am to midday. Sessions in other suburbs will follow. ILLNESSES such as cancer are going undetected in 300,000 Australians because they can’t afford scans to diagnose their disease.
Medicare rebates have been frozen for two decades and the Federal Government now faces a damaging campaign from the radiology industry, which claims Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has broken a 2016 election pledge to make scans more affordable. The nine million patients a year who visit radiology clinics will from next week be given pamphlets explaining how the Government broke its election promise, as radiologists demand a Medicare rebate increase.
Patients will be warned their out-of-pocket costs for Xrays, CT scans, MRIs and other scans will increase in coming years as a result.
“Medicare is sick and the Government won’t fix it,” the pamphlet says.
Average out-of-pocket costs for scans such as X-rays, MRIs and CT scans are now $100.
A previously unpublished Australian Bureau of Statistics survey shows 277,300 people delayed or avoided a scan ordered by their doctor in 2015-16 because they couldn’t afford it.