REGINA – A question posed by the premier on social media Thursday is garnering quite a bit of attention, and criticism.
Brad Wall asked whether Saskatchewan residents should have the option to pay for private MRI’s like other provinces, such as Alberta.
The leader of the opposition, Cam Broten, responded Friday stating the ability to pay for a private MRI would only benefit a select few.
“The idea that a family or any individual who has the financial resources, the extra $1000, and skips the line and gets the surgery faster than someone who doesn’t have the means to do that simply isn’t right,” he told the media.
Broten added the option would lead to queue-jumping for backlogged surgeries.
Health minister Dustin Duncan, said the option is only an idea, but added people who can afford it are already travelling to get those scans faster.
“I don’t think people can assume that 100 per cent of people who go through the surgical process in Saskatchewan haven’t had their diagnostics done outside the province,” he told reporters.
Duncan did confirm the province has received an application from a private MRI company to provide scans to the public in Saskatchewan, but added it’s too early in the application process to name the company or give details on which city they submitted their application for.
The Canadian Institute of Health Information shows Albertans waited an average of 80 days for an MRI last year.
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In Saskatoon, the province’s largest health region, patients waited around 23 days for MRI’s deemed urgent, 93 for semi-urgent and 140 for non-urgent.
The president of the health care council for the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Gordon Campbell, said that wait times are actually steadily declining in Saskatchewan and argues private MRI clinics won’t help staff shortages.
“It’s like poaching almost right. There’s a system that’s already running to capacity now and if there aren’t more technologist and radiologist brought into the province, how’s that going to look any better?”
Duncan said that issue, among many others, would need to be addressed if the idea is introduced into legislation, but for now it’s just a discussion.
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