PREMIER MUSING ON PRIVATE MRI CLINICS
Wonders if people want to pay directly
SASKATOON — The Saskatchewan health ministry is reviewing a company’s application to open a privately run MRI service in the province.
Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall said Thursday his government is entertaining the idea of allowing private companies to charge people directly for diagnostic medical scans — a major shift from the way the province currently does business.
“Our government has increased the number of MRIs in the province in the public system, increased the number of resources to provide MRIs. We are providing more of them. Yet, there still is a waiting time, especially for cases of low urgency,” Wall told reporters at the Saskatoon cabinet office Thursday morning.
In response to an inquiry following Wall’s comments, a health ministry spokesman said an unnamed company has applied to have a diagnostic imaging centre licensed in Saskatchewan, and that the application is under review. The ministry won’t release the identity of the company, or say when it filed the application.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computerized tomography (CT) scans have long been available in Alberta for a fee for those who can afford the expense and don’t want to wait on the public health system.
Although a private company, Mayfair Diagnostics, will soon start performing MRIs in Regina, the Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region pays for the scans. A similar arrangement with Radiology Associates of Regina sees some publicly funded CT scans take place in a private clinic.
Wall made the comments Thursday in response to a man who told the John Gormley Live radio show that he had waited more than three months for an MRI, and wanted to know why Saskatchewan people don’t have the option to pay for one at a private clinic.
“I said to him that this was a concern to me,” Wall said.
Wall said it is time for the government to look at whether Saskatchewan people should be able to pay directly for MRIs and other diagnostic scans. Wall said moving in that direction would cut wait times for all patients, whether they’re paying out of pocket or not.
At least two Saskatchewan First Nations have previously proposed opening private MRI suites.
In 2008, the Kawacatoose First Nation proposed a suite in Regina, which the health ministry didn’t approve.
Muskeg Lake Cree Nation had its eyes on building a wellness clinic, including an MRI, in Saskatoon in 2004. The band later backed away from that plan.
If private MRIs, CT and other scans are given the go-ahead, companies will not be allowed to poach workers from the public health care system, Wall said.
As soon as patients can get MRIs more quickly by paying out-of-pocket, richer people will get more timely care than the poor, Opposition health critic Danielle Chartier said.
“You still only have a single lineup for surgery or treatment, which means you can’t merge two lines into one without some queue-jumping along the way,” Chartier said.
Someone who has a less serious condition, but paid for a private MRI, can get results back to their doctor more quickly and get surgery or treatment more quickly, she said.
“Instead of a physician doing the triaging, you now basically have a banker doing the triaging.”
The NDP wants the government to build up the public system so everyone can have access to timely diagnosis and treatment regardless of how wealthy they are, Chartier said.
Preventing public health care workers from going to private companies is “ridiculous” and difficult to enforce, she added.
“(The premier is) telling a private provider he can’t hire someone who’s worked in the public system?”
The limited number of technologists trained to run CT scanners and MRI machines also affects waiting times for the scans, Chartier said — a problem more machines won’t solve.
Wall was on record as early as 2008 saying privately operated MRI machines were a possibility in Saskatchewan.