ProCare in collaboration with Pinnacle Midlands Health Network is proud to support the General Practitioner Magnetic Resonance Imaging (GPMRI) team reach the milestone of more than 1,000 General Practitioners trained in how to make a referral to MRI services.

The last education session saw a number of new GPs trained, resulting in a total of 1,004 accredited GPs since the project launched in 2017.

Paul Roseman, General Manager of Strategic Development, at ProCare says: “The ACC GPMRI project creates pathways to support GPs to make direct referrals for MRIs, thereby removing the need for patients to visit a specialist before they can access MRI. The pathway focuses on patients with knee and back (cervical and lumbar spine) injuries.

“As a result of this initiative, wait times for patients to access diagnostics have significantly reduced, unnecessary surgery is avoided, money is saved and ultimately, the rehabilitation process can begin faster,” points out Roseman.

The sessions include learning about the programme and patient eligibility, and how to perform musculoskeletal assessments. Additionally, GPs learn the mechanism for making a referral to ACC MRI providers, providing clinical governance and support, as well as collection of patient outcomes.

Bindi Norwell, Chief Executive at ProCare says: “This is a great example of how innovation can provide a number of positive benefits for patients and the wider healthcare system. Streamlining MRI services using general practitioners’ already extensive knowledge just makes sense and we’ve seen wait times almost halve as a result.

“To be able to provide these sorts of results, and have trained this many GPs, all while dealing with a global pandemic over the last couple of years is testimony to how hard the team has worked to ensure patients receive the best care possible,” concludes Norwell.

The GPMRI team have been focused on continuing the national rollout by hosting several education sessions for GPs across the North Island – with the most recent education session in Tauranga.

There are now accredited GPs in throughout the upper North Island from Taranaki to Tairāwhiti, and to the north in Te Tai Tokerau. Planning for Thames is underway.

The rollout follows a pilot with ProCare and Mercy Radiology which begun in Auckland in 2017. The GPMRI service was successfully trialed with several other PHOs between 2018 and 2020, cutting the wait time from referral to MRI from an average of 23 days to 12.4 days.