She also handed over $21,000 for equipment that will include a medical ventilator, a bladder scanner and trauma beds as well as the 20 new acute beds announced last month.

When last month's trauma beds were announced, the Advertiser and local campaigner Geoff Berry kept asking Ms Roxon about funding for an MRI machine at the hospital.

``I know that for many community members this has been a long campaign,'' Ms Roxon said on Thursday. ``It means that patients that need an MRI scan will not need to travel to Liverpool for that service, and, of course, for elderly or frail patients that's particularly important.''

Macarthur Labor candidate Nick Bleasdale said the community deserved this vital piece of equipment.

``I think it's fantastic that this is a government that's committed to health services in our community in stark contrast to Mr Abbott's cuts,'' he said.

But Mr Bleasdale and Wollondilly state MP Phil Costa wouldn't say whether the August 21 election had played a part in the timing of the announcement.

``For gifts like this, it's always a good time,'' Mr Costa said.

Mr Berry said he was thrilled about the machine, which he said was ``the Rolls-Royce of MRIs'' and that he was grateful to the Gillard government.

``All we need now is an extension to the hospital and better facilities for medical students, but I accept what we've got, so I'm not going to push that, but the next thing would be an education centre,'' Mr Berry said.

The state opposition health spokeswoman, Jillian Skinner, also visited Campbelltown last Thursday to meet local medical staff and representatives from the University of Western Sydney Medical School to discuss matters of health reform.

Ms Skinner said she supported the decision to put an MRI machine at Campbelltown Hospital, because, she said, this was something Macarthur Liberal Russell Matheson had been campaigning for for a long time.