‘Why should I have to pay $1200 to get medical care in my own province?’
Labrador woman frustrated with issues faced when travelling to St. John’s for an MRI
Angela Legge knows the province’s health-care system, and she knows she is one of the lucky ones when it comes to getting an MRI.
Legge has never faced an overwhelming delay in getting an MRI, but she says the amount of bureaucracy and lack of planning by NL Health Services has left her with a bitter experience.
INITIAL MRI
Legge is from Labrador City. The province has no MRI services anywhere in Labrador, so she travels to St. John’s each time she needs an MRI.
Her neurosurgeon is based in St. John’s, where she needs to see him after each scan.
“I was referred to an MRI in 2013. Once it got transferred over to my neurosurgeon, I never had a hitch. He just said, ‘When you get the letter for your MRI, call this number.’ And he gave me the booking number and asked me to make my appointment for a day or two after the MRI,” says Legge.
“Started off as every four months, then every six months, then every year and now every two years. It’s the same as if I had cancer — I didn’t have cancer, but it was a tumour. They just want to keep an eye, make sure it’s not growing back.”
LINING UP DATES
Legge’s tumour is now stable and under control, but she still needs an MRI every two years.
The process of getting an MRI is simple, but lining up the dates to see her doctor after an MRI can be a nightmare, she said.
“I got the letter for the MRI. I’ll say I need to make an appointment with (my neurosurgeon). If (the MRI) is the first (of the month), I need to make the appointment (with the doctor) for the second or the third,” says Legge.
“(The booking office) will say usually it’s a week or two after. And I say, ‘I’m in Labrador and the doctor wants to see me a day or two after.’
“They’ll usually put me in with no issue, sometimes. Other times, like the last time, for my upcoming trip, there’s issues. They wouldn’t let me get an earlier date with the doctor. So, I ended up having to change my MRI date.”
EXPENSIVE AND IMPRACTICAL
Legge says she plans to talk about the issue with her doctor soon. She says the alternative is too expensive and impractical for her.
“I don’t have any family in St. John’s. For me to go to St. John’s, it’s a hotel, food, cabs, and all that. Having to wait a week between appointments, versus a couple days, is significant,” says Legge.
“If I couldn’t change the date of the MRI, I would’ve had to spend a week in St. John’s. I can’t get a hold of (my neurosurgeon) himself because his mailbox is usually full and he doesn’t have a secretary, doesn’t have an office. The only other option I would have would be to send him a letter through the mail.”
NOT THE ONLY ISSUE
This isn’t the only time issues have come up.
“I’ve had appointments change where I had my MRI one day and I’m supposed to see (the neurosurgeon) the next, but my MRI got changed to the day after I was seeing him. He was not impressed with that,” says Legge.
Other issues in the past included trouble with Eastern Health accommodations.
“I’m coming from Labrador, so I come in two days before because of flights and storms, just as a precaution. But they have trouble booking you in anything earlier than the day before your MRI. That doesn’t work for me,” says Legge.
“Depending on the flights and connections and when your appointment is, if the flights are cancelled, then rebooking, and doing all this stuff and then get out there then and all of a sudden have your appointment cancelled.”
A DISCONNECT
Legge sees a disconnect between NL Health Services in St. John’s and people in Labrador.
“For most people in Newfoundland, you can just go to St. John’s and then come back a week after for the followup. It’s going to cost you getting gas, but you don’t need a hotel room or anything. It’s different for me coming from Labrador,” says Legge.
“People have got to realize that we just can’t flick to St. John’s for appointments and be there in a few hours. We have to plan it out.”
She says she understands having to spend a little bit of money for gas to drive to a hospital, but having to go to St. John’s for increasingly simple procedures is starting to go form a minor hassle to a major problem.
“I’m in Newfoundland and Labrador. I just happen to be in Labrador.
“Why should I have to pay $1,200 to get medical care in my own province?” says Legge, referring to the cost of a flight from Labrador City to St. John’s.