Ultrasound in Ontario a last resort after clinic turns away Kirkland man
In public system, patient would have to wait up to a year
Christos Tsironis has been suffering from abdominal pain and he needs an ultrasound as soon as possible.
But he’s been told that the wait in the public system could take up to a year, and private radiology clinics have stopped offering them because of a Quebec government ban this month on medical accessory fees.
So the 69-year-old Kirkland resident said he had no choice but to book an ultrasound at a clinic in Hawkesbury, Ont. On Friday, he’ll drive across the Ontario border and pay $100 out of pocket for the ultrasound at the private Advance Medical Imaging clinic.
“I don’t understand it,” he said in an interview Tuesday. “It’s ridiculous. It’s nonsense.”
On Monday, at his doctor’s suggestion, Tsironis visited the Centre de radiologie Brunswick in PointeClaire for an abdominal X-ray and ultrasound. He underwent the X-ray, which has long been covered under medicare. But when it came time for the ultrasound, the technician told him that the clinic doesn’t offer them anymore.
Dr. Edouard Yeghiayan, medical director of the clinic, confirmed to the Montreal Gazette on Tuesday that he’s suspended performing ultrasounds “like every other office.”
“We don’t have a code for it, and we don’t know what the price would be,” Yeghiayan explained. “Once we rectify it with the (health) minister and the association (of radiologists), then we’ll go ahead.
“For now, we’re taking patients’ names or asking them to call us later.”
Tsironis’s wife is aghast that her husband — who has donated generously to the Jewish General and Lakeshore General hospitals — will have to seek care in another province because the Quebec government banned accessory fees without first ensuring that the public sector could absorb an influx of patients.
“I think it’s absolutely terrible,” she said, declining to have her name published because she wants to maintain her privacy.
“I’ve seen a lot of people who are desperate to get an appointment. People are in pain and they need to see a doctor.”
In May, Health Minister Gaétan Barrette announced the government would no longer allow private clinics to charge fees for a wide range of services, including eye drops, colonoscopies and ultrasounds.
But critics charge that the minister rushed to implement the ban and failed to inform the public of what fees can still be charged and what services are now covered under medicare. For example, MRI scans in private clinics are exempted from the ban.
And although Barrette did invest $21 million to decrease wait times for medical imaging in hospitals, observers say that’s not nearly enough to reduce the backlog.
When Tsironis learned that ultrasounds weren’t available anymore in private clinics, he phoned his family doctor and asked his secretary to schedule an appointment for him in a hospital.
“Don’t worry, we’ll call the hospital,” he recalled the secretary telling him. “Then she called me five minutes later and told me that she would have to refer me to Hawkesbury because it will take a year to get an ultrasound at a hospital.
“This is just so sad,” Tsironis added. “My advice: Don’t get sick in Quebec.”