PET near Bowen, QLD

If you need PET, it will not be in Bowen — nothing here is accredited for it. The nearest one is at Qscan Mackay in North Mackay, about 156 km away, roughly 2 hr 30 min by road. After that, the options are Queensland X-Ray Mater Hyde Park in Hyde Park (172 km) and The Townsville Hospital/Radiology Dept in Douglas (174 km).

What Bowen does have locally is x-ray, ultrasound and CT. If your referral is for one of those, you do not need to leave town — see everything Bowen has.

To put 156 km in context: of the 1062 QLD towns we hold, 78 are further than Bowen from a PET service. It is a real trip, and worth planning as one.

That is a long way to go for a scan, and there is no way to make 156 km shorter. Two things are worth knowing: every state and territory runs a patient travel assistance scheme for people who have to travel for care, and the local health service or your referring doctor can tell you whether you qualify. Some regional hospitals also run visiting services on a roster, which the accreditation register cannot show us — worth one phone call before you plan the trip.

Queensland has 37 PET practices in total, 23 of them outside the capital. The machines cluster where the population is, which is why the nearest one to Bowen is where it is.

Current Medicare accreditation runs: Qscan Mackay to 31 October 2027, Queensland X-Ray Mater Hyde Park to 30 June 2027 and The Townsville Hospital/Radiology Dept to 30 September 2026. We drop a modality the day its accreditation lapses, so if it is listed above it is current.

Of the three practices listed, all publish a phone number, all have a website and one lists opening hours. A phone call before you travel is worth it: a practice can be accredited for a scan and still not run it daily.