Halifax woman waited 3 years for MRI that showed she had brain tumour

A Halifax resident is frustrated after waiting more than three years for an MRI that showed a benign brain tumour and she's worried others are suffering because of an inefficient system.

A doctor at a hospital eye clinic referred Marina Atwell for diagnostic imaging of her brain in June 2021, a few months after a routine eye test detected one of her eyes was significantly weaker. She waited more than three years to learn that the problem, which was affecting her vision, was a growth impacting her optic nerve. 

"I'm told that I have a two-centimetre tumour on my brain. And so I'm a little bit stressed at this point because how long [has] it been there? How fast is it growing?" she said.

"When you hear those words, brain tumour, it's like you're written off. That's what I felt."

While Atwell's condition is stable and the tumour won't be removed because of its size and location, she said nobody has explained why it took so long to get the MRI that helped diagnose her.

She is also questioning why she was offered two MRIs in the months after she finally got the crucial appointment.

Atwell's wait was longer than typical for an MRI referral. The Nova Scotia Health Authority's website says 90 per cent of MRI referrals are served within 435 days—that's a little over 14 months. In Nova Scotia, there were 25,565 patients on the MRI waitlist in November, excluding patients referred for an MRI at the IWK.

However, that wait is still too long, according to the Canadian Association of Radiologists. It recommends that patients should not wait more than 60 days for a non-urgent MRI.

"Our professionals who are trying to get us the tests are probably as frustrated as the patients waiting to get the tests," said Atwell. 

Wait times 'unacceptable'

Ania Kielar, president of the Canadian Association of Radiologists, said MRIs are often critical for a diagnosis, and even when they are not considered urgent, delaying the process could cause people's conditions to worsen.

"Many conditions, if they are left untreated, end up with a lot worse prognosis and worse outcomes for patients." 

Kielar said the wait, and the anxiety of not knowing what is wrong, should not be overlooked. 

"If you have to wait six months to a year to get an MRI, by then you have either improved or there's going to be some negative consequences for you," she said. "So it's really unacceptable for people to have to wait that long."

Atwell said when she was first referred she offered to go anywhere in the province "at the drop of a hat" and checked in numerous times on the status of her appointment.  

She even considered getting a private MRI but decided against it as initially, she did not think her case was serious. 

"As a patient, you don't know what you don't know," she said. "I never felt for me that my life was in danger."

In July 2024, she showed up unannounced at the clinic and explained to the clerk that she had been waiting for three years. Atwell said the clerk was apologetic and told her she would email the specialist's assistant. 

She finally got an MRI appointment on Aug. 26 at St. Martha's Regional Hospital in Antigonish, more than 200 kilometres from Halifax. The test identified a calcified meningioma — a benign tumour that grows from the membranes that surround the brain. Atwell was swiftly connected with a neurologist who said surgery wasn't required. 

Despite finally getting an MRI, she received a call from Dartmouth General Hospital in October offering Atwell another one after a last-minute cancellation. 

Atwell told them to remove her from the list so that other people could get an MRI. But she still had to call again after receiving a letter confirming another one scheduled for Nov. 16 in Halifax at the QEII Health Sciences Centre. 

"It's in my nature to call to say 'I don't need this,' but I wonder how many people would have received that and said, 'I've had my MRI' and just thrown it in the garbage and just not show up, which is a wasted MRI appointment," she said. 

"If you get an MRI anywhere that should go into a bank of information as opposed to having people waste appointments with specialists because they don't have the results. It's crazy." 

No-shows and limited MRI units

Atwell's concern about people not showing up to their appointments is a reality.

In 2022, patients missed more than 22,000 scheduled diagnostic imaging appointments across the province, including MRIs, CT scans and ultrasounds.

Lewis Bedford, the senior director, diagnostic and therapeutic services network at NSHA, said one way the province is improving the MRI referral system is through electronic referrals which were introduced in September 2023. The new system aims to better match patients with appointments that fit their needs. 

"We're working on improving those internal communication channels," he said.

With electronic referrals, patients who provide their email address receive notifications when the referral is sent and when an appointment is booked. Patients can also confirm their appointment via email. The province says the new system can help eliminate lost, incomplete, or duplicate referrals.  

Bedford added the number of MRI images gathered in Nova Scotia between January to September — 39,781 — was 30 per cent more than the previous year.

In some parts of Nova Scotia, up to 30 per cent of patients receiving MRIs are not local. As a result, hospitals previously only knew whether a patient has had an MRI if they called a toll-free rebooking line. 

Another factor contributing to the long wait times is the amount of MRI units. Nova Scotia is on par with the Canadian average, with 11 MRI units in 10 sites. 

However, a recent report by the Fraser Institute says Canada trails behind other countries with universal health care, ranking 27th out of 31 in MRI units per million people. 

Feels like 'waste of resources'

Over the course of the three years Atwell was waiting for an MRI, she said she had appointments at the hospital's eye clinic to do the same tests but kept being told the same thing: she needed an MRI to know what was wrong. 

"There's a lot of people that really, really need health care services," said Atwell. "And so for me to keep going back and having the same test done is a waste of resources."

She considers herself lucky. However, she is now aware that others on the waitlist may not be able to afford to wait as long as she did and are anxious to get treated. 

If it "isn't able to happen because of the administration of the system, then it's broken," she said.