Mr ANDREW: Minister, could you please update us on the PET scanner for the Rockhampton
region?
Ms FENTIMAN: I thank the member for the question. It was a really special day when we were
up in Rockhampton with patients who were undergoing cancer treatment to announce that
Rockhampton would get a PET scanner. There is a lot of work that has to happen obviously to get a
PET scanner installed at Rocky, with a very specialist workforce and specialist facilities. We are doing
that work now. We are doing the preparation to have the specialist workforce and we are doing the
work to have the infrastructure.
Infrastructure planning will need to consider whether the available space and radiation shielding
is of an appropriate size for the scanner and if the appropriate surrounding infrastructure is suitable—
uptake rooms, laboratory, patient waiting spaces. Initial planning has also commenced to inform a
master plan and business case to ensure the hospital can accommodate this. It is a three-year timetable
and that allows for detailed design, development, procurement, construction and fit-out, testing and
commissioning of the PET scanner, onsite training of staff, and assessment of the available room in
relation to radiation shielding and space for the scanner.
What I would also say for the member is obviously we are going to need to continue to invest in
these kinds of scanners right across the state and it is a highly trained workforce. As part of our
$1.7 billion workforce strategy, there is a real focus on nuclear medicine. Currently, we do not do any
training in Queensland for our nuclear medicine workforce and that is something we are working to
change. We are actively working with our universities to make sure we can train up the next generation
of nuclear medicine workers as well.