NDP: Longer wait times; less MRI scans being done

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The provincial NDP says patients in B.C. can end up waiting as long as two years now for an MRI thanks to Liberal government budget cuts.

Health critic Adrian Dix says the health care system ends up paying more to treat patients who have to wait that long.  “You need the MRI, you’re going to get it in 18 months and the public health care system will pay.  It doesn’t cost any more for the MRI 18 months from now then it would if they used the MRI machines that aren’t being used to anything like full capacity in our hospitals now.  It just pushes off your cost into another fiscal year for government.”

He says 28,000 MRI scans were performed in the Vancouver Coastal Health Region the year before the last provincial election, but that number has been cut to just over 20,000 post-election.

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