Islanders paying out of pocket for private MRIs as waitlist climbs past 2 years
Scans start at more than $1,000; those who can’t pay can face long, painful waits
When Vicky Chaisson took her 13-year-old daughter to the doctor last fall hoping for a diagnosis for a recurring ankle injury, the doctor ordered an MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging scan.
"We couldn't figure out why she was still in pain when she walked. Her foot was swelling," said Chaisson. "She likes being active and she likes playing hockey, but hockey was a struggle and she's too stubborn to get off the ice when it hurts."
A month later, Chaisson was told her daughter faced a 17-month wait for the MRI. The next time she called, it was going to be 19 months.
So the single mother started saving up for a big outlay of cash: more than $1,400 to cover a scan at a private MRI clinic in Moncton, with gas and the Confederation Bridge toll factored in.
"It costs an arm and a leg, but I would get the results way faster than if I was to sit and wait for that call [from Health P.E.I.], which I still have not got from them," she said on Wednesday.
According to the most recent national data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information, dating from 2023, P.E.I. had the second-longest MRI wait times in the country. Since then, the waitlist for Islanders has only gotten longer.
This week, Health P.E.I. told CBC News that the current wait time on the Island for a routine MRI is more than two years. The Canadian benchmark wait time for such a routine scan is 12 weeks.
For semi-urgent MRIs that use a dye injection to provide the detailed, high-contrast images required to detect things like small tumours, the wait is 46 weeks on the Island, versus the benchmark of eight weeks.
For the most urgent cases, Health P.E.I. said wait times are within the Canadian benchmark of two weeks.
The provincial health authority said in an email that it has been short two MRI technologists for most of 2024, "which has affected wait times."
As a stopgap, the province has hired technologists from a private agency — similar to the private-agency nurses P.E.I. and other provinces have been using to maintain staffing levels, sometimes referred to as travel nurses.
Health P.E.I. said it has recruited two new permanent technologists who begin work in January, which will bring staffing numbers up to full capacity.
Until then, the statement said, Health P.E.I. "is exploring off-Island options to help bring down wait times."
Pay or wait? Islanders share their stories
In the meantime, it's clear a lot of P.E.I. residents have been exploring going off-Island themselves, and paying out of pocket to avoid lengthy wait times.
CBC News reached out via social media, asking Islanders to share their personal stories. The dozens of people who responded run the gamut. Some are young and others older; there are those with diagnosed, chronic medical conditions and those hoping to find out what's wrong; some can afford to pay for a private MRI and others can't.
A sample of their stories:
- Stephanie Kneebone said she injured her knee in May 2023 and was referred for an MRI in October. Ten months later, she said, she called and was told it would be at least a 28-month wait. "I work as a full-time resident care worker and this knee injury is affecting my work life and personal life," Kneebone said in an email. "My husband and I have decided that we will come up with the funds to go to Moncton to get my MRI done."
- Pamela Egan said her orthopedic surgeon told her a year ago that she needs shoulder surgery, but she has to have an MRI before that can happen. Last week, her family doctor told her it would be another two years or longer waiting for the scan. Egan said as a mother of four, paying out of pocket isn't an option for her. In the meantime, she's living in pain every day.
- Christine Crowell was told the MRI she needed for her shoulder was 18 months away, so she spent $1,150 to get it done privately in Moncton. Five days later, she said, she was seeing her surgeon at the QEH and having shoulder replacement surgery booked. Crowell said that during a follow-up X-ray appointment at the hospital, staff told her they aren't even taking names for MRIs right now because the waitlist is so long.
- Shelley Hanson of Stratford has been waiting since December 2022 for an MRI, something her orthopedic surgeon ordered after she broke her ankle for the third time. She said there was no transparency from the beginning as to how long she would have to wait. "Absolutely I would have done something different," including paying for a private MRI, if she had been told from the outset how long she'd be waiting, she said in an email to CBC News.
- Donna Blanchard said she and her husband had no choice but to dip into their life savings to pay for a private MRI. Blanchard requires surgery for a slipped disc and has been unable to work. She said they were told that if they chose not to pay for a private scan, she'd have to wait two years. "We couldn't afford to go to Moncton for an MRI," she said, "but we had to."
- Craig Cooper has a degenerative disc condition, and said he's been in debilitating, crippling pain since it flared up in June. His doctor wanted to order him an MRI but said he wasn't allowed to do that until Cooper had a CT scan. The wait for that plus the MRI was going to be three years, so Cooper paid $1,500 to go to Moncton. "I'm fortunate to be able to afford the trip to Moncton and ridiculous cost of the MRI, but it's simply not right," Cooper told CBC News in an email. "I couldn't imagine if I had no choice but to live with the pain I'm dealing with for another two to three years"
CBC News asked Health P.E.I., the P.E.I. Department of Health, and the private company that operates the MRI clinic in Moncton how many Prince Edward Island residents are paying for appointments. No one provided that figure.
One person told CBC News that private insurance covered part of the cost. Several said they asked Health P.E.I. to pick up part of the tab and were turned down.
No answer was provided when CBC News asked Health P.E.I. if costs would be covered for any Islanders seeking MRIs elsewhere and under what conditions. CBC News also asked for an interview but no one from Health P.E.I. was made available.
Urging extended hours
Mary Boyd with the Canadian Health Coalition said her group has been asking Health P.E.I. to extend the hours during which it operates its MRI machines to have them working around the clock, as many other jurisdictions do.
They're poaching staff out of the public system and that makes the waiting list longer.— Mary Boyd
"The answer we've been getting is that they haven't got the personnel," said Boyd, who was named to the Order of Canada in 2013 for her social justice work.
"But the trouble is, if you go to Moncton to get a private MRI, all of the staff running that private MRI [are] taken out of the public system. They're poaching staff out of the public system and that makes the waiting list longer."
The coalition advocates for the public health care system and opposes privatization, and says all Canadians should be able to access required health services regardless of their ability to pay.
Boyd suggested Health P.E.I. could do a better job managing its waitlist, expressing sympathy for families for whom long wait times cause further suffering.
"I'm not talking about queue jumping, but maybe some cases have to be triaged in order to make sure that people have a reasonable time span for their appointments," she said.
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