Islanders waiting longer than ever for an MRI scan, with no new solutions offered

While Health P.E.I. says improvements are coming in the new year, the latest batch of statistics from the health authority shows that wait times for MRI scans rose to the highest levels on record in 2024.

The average wait time for an Islander who received a routine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan to help diagnose a medical issue between July and September of this year was 524 days, or 75 weeks. 

About one in 10 Islanders in that category waited more than two years, which Health P.E.I. said is the current expected wait time for someone referred today.

That's despite the fact that Health P.E.I.'s target wait time for a routine MRI is 12 weeks.

"Obviously waiting two years is totally unacceptable. I mean, nobody should have to wait that long," said Dr. Ania Kielar, associate professor of medical imaging with the University of Toronto and president of the Canadian Association of Radiologists.

Last week, CBC News published the story of a woman in Nova Scotia who waited three years for a magnetic resonance image scan — only to discover that she had a brain tumour.

Kielar said those are the types of conditions that go undetected, and potentially worsen, when there are long delays to provide the necessary imaging.

"Thirty days is reasonable if it's not emergent, but two years clearly isn't," she said. "If you have an illness that's serious, by the time that comes around, it's not going to be a great outcome."

New staff coming, but backlog keeps growing

"MRI services on P.E.I. have been at 50 per cent staffing for most of 2024 due to staff retirement, which is having a significant impact on wait times," Health P.E.I. said in a statement to CBC News.

The agency said two new technologists who've been training for almost a year will start work in January, bringing services to full staffing. In the meantime, Health P.E.I. said it's been using private agency staff to boost numbers.

The overall volume of scans conducted in the province between late 2023 and the first half of this year dropped so low that hardly anyone who was deemed less than a semi-urgent case got one, no matter how long they'd been waiting.

Even before that drop, P.E.I. was conducting fewer MRI scans per capita than any other province or territory.

The whole system is at a point where I don't know anybody is getting anything in a timely manner unless you're almost dead.— Dean Blanchard

According to figures from the Canadian Journal of Health Technologies, P.E.I. conducted 33 MRI scans per 1,000 population from 2022 to 2023, just behind Nova Scotia at 33.4 scans, but well below the national average of 55.6 per 1,000 people.

With its single MRI machine at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown, P.E.I. also lags far behind the rest of the country in the per capita number of machines, with 5.7 machines per million population versus 10.8 across Canada.

Couple needed 2 scans; had to pay for 1

Dean Blanchard of Summerside has been dealing with chronic back and hip pain for the past two decades and has had several MRIs over that time.

None took anywhere near as long as the two years he waited leading up to the MRI he received at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in October.

"It's frustrating… I mean, I know I'm nobody special, but I've had this issue going on for so long," Blanchard said. 

"I don't think that my condition should get me to the head of the line; I'm not saying that. But the whole system is at a point where I don't know anybody is getting anything in a timely manner unless you're almost dead."

Blanchard and his wife both needed MRIs last year. They decided they had "no choice but to bite the bullet and pay" for his wife to get a private scan because she was unable to work because of a slipped disc. Now she's waiting for surgery.

If she had had to wait as long as her husband did, "she still wouldn't have an MRI," said Blanchard.

No numbers on how many pay out-of-pocket

Dozens of Islanders have told CBC News they paid more than $1,000 plus travel costs to book a private MRI on the mainland rather than wait years to get a free one at home.

Health P.E.I. told CBC News it doesn't track the numbers of Islanders who choose to pay for this service, and does not compensate them, except in very rare cases where specialized equipment is required that P.E.I. doesn't have.

The health agency did not provide anyone for an interview on the topic.

An online document outlining why the agency might deny requests from Islanders to have outside medical costs covered makes it clear that "wait time is not considered justification to seek services out of province."

Reimburse costs, says opposition MLA

On Tuesday, Health P.E.I. told CBC News that it is "working on out-of-province pathways to help alleviate the current wait times" for MRIs — largely the same thing the agency said in September.

Green Party health critic Matt MacFarlane said policies should be changed to support Islanders going off-Island for MRIs until the province can ramp up its own program, by buying a second machine and hiring more staff.

"It's one thing to say we offer the service here in Prince Edward Island, but it's quite another to say that you're gonna have to wait two years to get it," MacFarlane said. "And in the meantime, you're going to be completely incapacitated. You're going to be concerned and anxious about what your illness or your condition might be."

There was no response from the Department of Health and Wellness to a CBC News request for an interview with Health Minister Mark McLane.

But when MacFarlane asked McLane about wait times in the legislature on Nov. 14, the minister suggested the health-care system isn't ready to accommodate more patients by improving access to MRIs.

"We can send people away or do a million MRIs, but we need people to read them. We need to improve surgery times," McLane said.

"If we send people for scans and they can't move through our system, what's the point?"

Private scan can speed up treatment

However, a number of Islanders have told CBC News that paying for a private scan did get them moving quickly into treatment and care.

Edgar Arsenault said paying for a private MRI meant he waited months, instead of years, to get the cortisone injections he needed for his knee to help him walk again.

"I don't think I should have needed to pay for that," said Arsenault. "It's something we're entitled to have from our Department of Health."

But in his case, he said paying was better than waiting in pain.

"A farmer told me once [that] if he had to leave a cow in the field or a horse with a limp like I had for 12 months, he would be charged with cruelty to animals."