American companies advertising MRI services to Manitoba patients

Manitobans are getting another reminder of how long wait times are for diagnostic images.

You may have recently received a pamphlet from Grand Forks Clinic advertising its imaging centre which reads ‘MRI In Days, Not Months!'

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Another cross-border clinic, Unity Medical Center in Grafton, North Dakota updated its billboard on the I-94 in January which targets Canadians driving south by asking them “Why wait?”

“If we have the availability to get them in, we might as well open that up to them for them to come down,” said Jess Tanke, the radiology supervisor at Unity Medical Centre.

As of June 2024 -the latest numbers available for this year on the province’s wait time dashboard-- the median wait time for an MRI in Manitoba was 21 weeks, up from 13 weeks in 2022. When broken down by facility, the dashboard showed the median MRI wait at the Health Sciences Centre was 44 weeks and 30 weeks at Grace Hospital.

Tanke said Unity gets about five Canadian patients a week who are getting an MRI, but the clinic gets several phone calls a day from Canadians waiting in pain.

"Hearing that they can get in within a week or two is huge for them to not have to wait the six to nine months,” she told CTV News Winnipeg on Wednesday.

Tanke said her clinic is booking MRIs two weeks out.

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'There is a desperation there'

Dayna McTaggart, the Manitoba provincial manager for the Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologists, said she is not surprised Manitobans are getting targeted ads.

“There is a desperation there that's being exploited, in my opinion, in order to be able to get people the scans that they need in a more timely fashion,” she said.

McTaggart said if nothing is done to hire more technologists to do more MRIs in Manitoba, the wait times will only get longer.

“We have an aging population, and so we can tend to expect the demand for that is going to increase,” she said.

CTV News Winnipeg asked Doctors Manitoba about cross-border diagnostic imaging. A spokesperson wrote it is unfortunate that Manitobans are considering paying for medically-necessary testing because of unreasonably long waits.

“The most pressing need is to train and hire more technologists to add more testing capacity, and we have yet to see any plans for this from the province,” the spokesperson said.

They also added the average wait time for an MRI in Canada is eight weeks.

Doctors Manitoba wants Manitobans thinking about out-of-country imaging to be cautious, talk to their doctor about it, and know they will not be compensated for the money they spend.

The spokesperson also noted that getting the test faster may not speed up your overall wait time for diagnosis or treatment because you may still need to wait to see a specialist.

Doctors Manitoba also said testing done in America cannot be interpreted by a Canadian radiologist, and American radiologists won’t be able to access your medical records.

A spokesperson for Manitoba Health, Seniors, and Long-Term Care said in a statement the province has begun creating a long-term plan for diagnostics. They said that plan includes increased weekend and evening staff at specific hospitals.

Meantime, the federal government can and has clawed back health transfer funding from provinces that offer private imaging services.