Concerns have been raised over Kalgoorlie Health Campus's apparent resistance to referring patients to other services which can provide urgent scans on short notice, despite those services being covered by Medicare.

The Health Campus, Kalgoorlie's public hospital, serves Western Australia's Goldfields region.

Grandfather of seven, Peter Smith, recently visited the hospital with severe back pain and was told he would need to wait at least two weeks for a CT scan. The hospital did not suggest any alternatives to waiting.

"The doctor gave me an x ray form, a CT scan form and a bone density form, bone density graph, so I went out to the hospital. Now, all they could do then was the X ray. They don't have a bone density scan machine. They don't have that at all... and the CT scan was going to take another 15 days," he told National Indigenous Times.

Mr Smith went to Spartan First Imaging, an Indigenous-owned service in Kalgoorlie which was recently a finalist in the WA Business Awards.

"I was limping pretty bad, and I couldn't move, and getting up and down on the bed and everything. And the radiologist said, when I gave them all the paperwork... 'I noticed you had a CT scan in there, when is that getting done?' He said, 'you know, by the way you move... you look pretty bad'. I said, 'I've got to wait two weeks'," he said.

Spartan First Imaging contacted Mr Smith's doctor and arranged a referral after confirming to Mr Smith the service could be bulk billed through Medicare.

"He said 'you can't walk around like that, there's no way in the world, you will do more damage'... Now, within 48 hours, the doctor got it back, found out I had a fractured vertebra, bulging disc, two vertebrae dropped down onto each other. Now if I had kept going around for two weeks without knowing that I could have done some real damage," Mr Smith said.

Mr Smith said the hospital had not recommended any other medical imaging service, nor explained why they had not advised him of an alternative service which would get the scan done immediately and bulk bill.

"As a matter of fact, when I rang up and cancelled after I'd had the CT scan done (at Spartan), I rang up and cancelled at the hospital, they rang me back and wanted to know why I cancelled. I said, 'because I could get it done straight away' - and this was after I got the result - I said 'it's lucky I did, because I've got a broken back'," he said.

Patients requiring an urgent CT scan could include those suspected of having had a stroke, or suffering from lung clots - both conditions which disproportionately affect Indigenous patients in the Goldfields.

Spartan First Imaging CEO Des Headland told National Indigenous Times the situation was "incredibly disheartening".

"For an Indigenous-led medical imaging service built to improve access in the Goldfields, it's incredibly disheartening that we're not being engaged to help when patients are waiting weeks or being flown out of town," he said.

"We're here, we're available, and we can scan many of these patients close to home, on a more modern low-dose CT scanner. We just can't understand why that option isn't being used."

National Indigenous Times asked the WA Country Health Service (WACHS) why patients were not being referred to a medical imaging service in Kalgoorlie which could provide scanning services covered by Medicare, and what plans were in place to treat patients locally if they needed a scan urgently.

A spokesperson for Kalgoorlie Health Campus told National Indigenous Times WA Country Health Service "works closely with other service providers in our communities".

"The team at Kalgoorlie Health Campus continue to advise patients of their imaging options," they said.

"We encourage providers to liaise with WA Primary Health Alliance, local GPs and referring health providers to ensure these referrers are aware of their services and can inform their patients of their choices."