The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta is seeking to bar privately paid MRI and CT scans because they allow patients who can afford the tests to jump the line for care, according to a report in the Calgary Herald.
But the Alberta Medical Association said a ban on private diagnostic imaging clinics would lengthen patient waits that are already too long -- and that private clinics have been a partial solution to limited resources in the province's hospitals, the Herald reported.
The wait for an MRI scan at a public facility for nonurgent cases can be as long as 34 weeks, while the same test is available within days at a private clinic if patients can pay the approximately $700 cost themselves, according to the Herald.
Freestanding imaging facilities have cropped up across Canada, despite a 2002 federal commission that called for diagnostic tests to be included as insured services under the Canada Health Act so that all patients could have access, the Herald reported. But successive federal governments have not amended the legislation to include medical imaging.
The proposed changes, along with rules that would restrict doctors from charging patients fees for uninsured services in order to access covered care, will be discussed by the college's governing council next week, according to the Herald.
