Health expert ‘quite surprised’ by Melburnian’s shocking MRI story

A health expert says he’s “quite surprised” a Melbourne woman was sent to Adelaide for an urgent functional MRI last week.

The Herald Sun reports Kylie Hennessy was forced to make the 1600km round trip last week after being told there was a months-long wait for the scan in Melbourne.

The 50-year-old needed the MRI ahead of critical surgery to remove a brain tumour.

Head of the Melbourne School of Health Sciences at Melbourne University, Professor Bruce Thompson, says he’s “quite surprised” by the situation.

“I’m not sure the circumstances of this particular case but it is pretty unusual.

“Clearly our healthcare system is beyond stretched. There potentially could be multiple reasons in terms of staff shortages, or the machine was not functioning at the time … or they really wanted an extremely specialised image of that particular person which may have only been available in another state.”

Press PLAY below to hear Professor Thompson’s reaction to Kylie’s situation