Patients may be waiting longer for CT scans in the Canadian province of Alberta due to budget problems, according to a report published this week in Metro Toronto.
The story quotes emergency department physician Dr. Paul Parks of Medicine Hat Regional Hospital as saying that clinics and rural health centers have been told "to reduce the number of outpatient scans," which is causing patients to "flood" to hospitals for studies. The article goes on to state that several anonymous sources confirmed Parks' claims.
The claims were disputed by Alberta Health Services, which in January said it was looking for "efficiencies" in its upcoming budget. The agency told Metro Toronto that it did not have specific data on outpatient scan volume by press time; it added that funding for scans is managed by individual sites.
The Canadian Association of Radiologists has stated that patients should wait no more than eight weeks for a CT scan. That number stood at 10 weeks in early 2015 but reached 15 weeks in December, according to the report.
The article quoted Alberta Health Services as saying that it's examining CT utilization rates to ensure that patients who need urgent scans get them in a timely fashion.
