PET near Hamilton, VIC

If you need PET, it will not be in Hamilton — nothing here is accredited for it. The closest is Lake Imaging St John of God Hospital Ballarat, 162 km away in Ballarat — about 2 hr 29 min in the car. It is the only PET service within 200 km of Hamilton.

Hamilton has no accredited imaging practice of its own that we can see in the register, so any scan means travelling. The closest imaging of any kind is Bendigo Radiology Casterton in Casterton, 58 km away.

To put 162 km in context: of the 850 VIC towns we hold, 69 are further than Hamilton 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 162 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.

Victoria has 23 PET practices in total, 5 of them outside the capital. The machines cluster where the population is, which is why the nearest one to Hamilton is where it is.

Accreditation windows: Lake Imaging St John of God Hospital Ballarat to 31 July 2027. We drop a modality the day its accreditation lapses, so if it is listed above it is current.

Of the one practice 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.