Manitobans calling on province to reduce MRI wait times

Ahead of budget day, there are calls for the Manitoba government to do more to reduce MRI wait times in the province.

Ken Henry Jr. waited for about five months to receive an MRI for a herniated disc.

“My appointment, when I did finally get an appointment was at 10 p.m. They told me because it was just so backed up,” he explained.

“You have to wait by the phone for this appointment. I almost hung up on them because I thought it was a spam caller. It’s not a doctor who tells you, it’s a recorded message which says, ‘Somebody in your household has an appointment.’”

The Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologists says wait times for MRIs in Manitoba have gotten worse over the last few years and are calling on the current government to include improvements in the upcoming budget. 

“Overall, we are seeing an increase in the number of requests for this type of imaging and we are not seeing an increase in the number of scanners available as well as the professionals that operate that equipment,” said Dayna McTaggart, Manitoba’s provincial manager with the Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologists.

Shared Health tells CityNews in a statement that they’ve seen a 25 per cent increase in the number of urgent MRIs since the pandemic, leading to an increase in wait times for imaging not deemed urgent. 

Since the end of January, the wait time for elective outpatient MRIs was about 40 weeks.

Shared Health says they are working to reduce wait times, with about 71 full-time equivalent MRI techs in Manitoba, and only about 3 full-time equivalent vacancies.

“There’s factors in not posting vacant positions and it’s kind of leading those MRTs to believe that there are not MRI jobs in the province,” said McTaggart.

The Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals, which represents MRI techs in the province called Shared Health’s approach a “failure” and said workers are overburdened, with about 50 per cent of surveyed techs now thinking of leaving their jobs.

Even though Henry Jr. did get his MRI, he’s now waiting for surgery.  He’s also hoping the new government can tackle wait times all across Manitoba’s healthcare system.

“Doctors, healthcare staff, all of them are awesome, it’s the wait times that people are struggling with. When you are in this much pain, those wait times seem like forever.”

In a statment to CityNews, Minister of Health Uzoma Asagwara, said, “Since coming into office, we have been trying to fix the seven years of cuts and mismanagement by the former government.”

It went on to say that the province is “focusing on recruiting and retaining healthcare workers in all sectors, while building capacity throughout the system. We look forward to Budget 2024 being tabled on Tuesday, as it will reflect our number one priority: health care.”