Canadians should wait 60 days for a non-urgent MRI. In N.B., patients often wait a year
Dieppe man, MRI technologist representative call for changes
Luc Aubé has been battling concussion-like symptoms for years, including headaches, dizziness and bouts of vomiting.
The worst, he said, is the squeezing pressure he feels at the back of his head every day. He likens it to wearing a hat that's too tight.
"[I've] got that sensation all the time," said Aubé, 55, of Dieppe, N.B.. "[I've] got no position to relieve that pressure."
The problem started when he tried to break up a fight between two hockey players while refereeing a game and he hit his head on the ice. He didn't seek medical attention at the time, but it got worse a few years later when he was umpiring a baseball game and took a foul ball in the mask.
Since then, Aubé has sought help from his family doctor, an ear, nose and throat specialist, a physiotherapist, chiropractor, massage therapist and acupuncturist. But none has been able to diagnose him or provide effective treatment.
An MRI scan of his brain came back normal in June. He's now waiting for an MRI of his upper spine at the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre to determine next steps.
He's been on the non-urgent waitlist since September and expects he could wait another nine months. The average wait for non-urgent cases at the Dumont is currently 415 days, data obtained from the Vitalité Health Network shows.
That's nearly seven times the national benchmark established by the Canadian Association of Radiologists. According to the professional association, the maximum a patient should wait for a non-urgent MRI when "no negative long-term medical outcome related to delay in treatment is expected," is 60 calendar days.
"It's long. It's way long," said Aubé, a database architect, who struggles daily with concentration and balance. He said he's spending about $1,500 a year for treatments such as acupuncture and massage that aren't covered.
Such waits are not unusual in New Brunswick, however, based on data from the two regional health authorities.
The average wait for a non-urgent MRI across four Vitalité hospitals is currently 391 days, ranging from 243 days at the Chaleur Regional Hospital in Bathurst to 464 days at the Campbellton Regional Hospital.
Across five Horizon hospitals, the average is currently 284 days, ranging from 127 days at the Miramichi Regional Hospital to 365 days at the Upper River Valley Hospital in Waterville.
Non-urgent still serious, says MRI tech rep
Neither Vitalité nor Horizon responded to questions about the number of people waiting.
But Jennifer Carey, manager of the Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologists, Atlantic, noted each one has a story like Aubé's.
It's serious to them, she stressed. They could be suffering from chronic headaches, for example, or back, hip or knee pain that's affecting their quality of life. They want answers and a treatment plan.
She said a health-care provider has determined that "this MRI is the next piece in the puzzle of determining what is wrong and the gateway to what they're going to do to make it better."
So having to wait becomes a "huge source of frustration" and in some cases, worry about whether their problem will become more severe while they wait.
"That plays a lot on patients' mental and emotional well-being," and can have detrimental effects on their overall health, Carey said.
Semi-urgent and urgent waits also well above target
The average wait for a semi-urgent MRI across Vitalité is nearly 132 days, with a high of 239 days in Campbellton. The national benchmark is 30 calendar days.
Vitalité's average wait for an urgent MRI is about 55 days, with a high of 75 days in Bathurst. The national benchmark is seven calendar days.
Although Horizon posts its wait times for non-urgent MRIs on its performance dashboard, semi-urgent and urgent wait times are not available and were not provided to CBC News.
Carey wants to see both Vitalité and Horizon post all MRI wait times so patients know where they stand, where they could travel for a shorter wait, and whether there is "something wrong with the system."
Calls for more staff, MRIs
Carey recently met with Health Minister Dr. John Dornan to discuss MRI wait times and staffing shortages.
She contends more MRI technologists are needed to meet the demands. As it stands, she estimates there are only about 50 provincewide and they're "feeling immense pressure."
"Our profession currently is the bottleneck to a patient's continuing-care journey," she said.
New Brunswick has focused its efforts on recruiting and retaining doctors and nurses "to the detriment of everyone else that contributes to the health-care profession. And now we are seeing the consequences of that."
According to Carey, adding 20 to 25 MRI technologists to the system would help "a lot" with the wait time problem.
They get paid about $40 an hour, but are being lured away by higher wages, recruitment incentives and retention bonuses in other provinces, including our Atlantic neighbours in recent years.
"If you're an MRI technologist and you see that in Nova Scotia, maybe 45 minutes, an hour from where you are, you can be making $3 or $4 more an hour, as well as a signing bonus, it makes you think in a way that people didn't previously."
Carey said she proposed to Dornan providing incentives to existing X-ray technologists to go back to school for a year to become MRI-certified technologists.
Carey believes New Brunswick also needs more MRI machines, as many are already running at capacity, including evenings and weekends.
"It's not a cheap endeavour," she acknowledged, estimating each machine costs between $2 million and $3 million, and requires about six or seven technologists to operate.
She suggests adding a second machine at large sites that have only one, such as the Moncton Hospital, would be "the first logical step."
Province mum on paying for private scans
Department of Health spokesperson Sean Hatchard said an interview with Dornan "isn't possible."
In an emailed statement, Hatchard did not offer comment on the current wait times, but said the department is working with Vitalité and Horizon to "support their efforts to reduce wait times and improve access to MRIs."
The department looks forward to more discussions about finding ways to increase MRI availability, he said. "This includes working on solutions and initiatives on how to improve the supply, recruitment, and retention of medical radiation technologists."
Hatchard did not respond to questions about whether new positions or machines will be added, how many or how soon.
He also failed to respond to questions about whether New Brunswick will follow P.E.I.'s lead and cover the cost for some patients to get MRI scans at a private clinic in Moncton.
Health P.E.I. announced in December it will pay to send "semi-urgent" Islanders to IRM Moncton MRI for scans, in the hopes of reducing wait times. The $3.8-million contract covers 2,600 scans in the first year, as well as travel costs and administrative support.
Hatchard redirected all other inquiries to Vitalité and Horizon.
Vitalité, Horizon work to reduce waitlists
Blaming a "significant backlog" following the COVID-19 pandemic and a workforce shortage, Vitalité said in an emailed statement it's "committed to reducing wait times to acceptable levels."
Vitalité is "actively pursuing recruitment efforts and optimizing scheduling to maximize the use of available equipment," which sometimes includes referring patients to Horizon hospitals and vice versa.
Meanwhile, Horizon has no MRI staffing challenges, according to Jeff Carter, vice-president quality, patient experience and professional services.
Carter attributes Horizon's long waits to the province's population growth and the associated increased demand for services.
Horizon is "actively working to improve wait times for all medical imaging modalities," he said in an emailed statement.
The regional health authority has, for example, partnered with a number of educational programs to deliver accelerated virtual training for MRI technologists and upgraded its MRI machines in all zones, said Carter.
As a result, wait times for non-urgent MRIs have decreased by nearly 118 days since April 2024, while the number of patients seen is up by more than 20 per cent, with about 7,000 exams conducted, he said.
63rd on cancellation list
Aubé said he's willing to travel to a Vitalité hospital with a shorter wait than the Dumont, but he refuses to go to a Horizon hospital on principle.
"I'm a Vitalité patient and I think they need to solve their problem to give me an MRI," he said, stressing the importance of maintaining the two regional health authorities.
He's also adamant about not paying more than $1,000 out-of-pocket to get a private MRI. "I feel that we're expanding a two-tier system."
For now, Aubé has gotten himself on the Dumont's cancellation list. The last time he checked, he was 63rd.
