The provincial government and the Ministry of Health deserve credit for seeking alternative solutions for ongoing backlogs in the MRI sector.
We cannot endorse the well advertised Buy 1 Get 1 Free idea, but at least it tells us someone in the ministry is willing to think outside the proverbial box when it comes to medical imaging services.
While we don’t believe the plan adds more ice to the slippery-slope that is rearing its head in the form of private health care in a publicly-funded system, it certainly doesn’t allay fears either.
We don’t buy into the plan because the proposed solution simply circumvents the problem and doesn’t address it.
We have nine MRI machines in Saskatchewan. What we don’t have are enough radiologists and technologists to operate and translate the images. The province does not yet offer around the clock imaging service and with an increase in CT scanners, the problem is only going to escalate, not diminish.
Going from private-care and public care with one public-pay route to a private-care, private-pay system, does not hold to the true tenants of Medicare as we know it.
We don’t need a “jump the queue” action plan since that will only increase the demand for the service from a medical community that will simply expect more testing, or, some more “churning” of the system.
If we buy into the Two For One proposal, we can pretty well guarantee confusion, chaos and frustration will follow, especially if the private MRI deployment crews will be allowed to charge whatever they feel they will need to assure their services and equipment are covered when they provide the “free” imaging.
Who would oversee the triage and assessments? It certainly couldn’t be the physicians.
At this point, our suggestion is to order one more MRI machine to add to the existing inventory and start focusing on the supply of personnel, not the machinery while closely monitoring the use of the equipment and system to ensure that unnecessary tests are minimized and the MRI equipment is not being abused simply to increase cash flow.
We have seen where private clinics have been put to good use to reduce wait times for knee and hip surgeries and other one-day surgical procedures. But that service remains as one that is a private care, public pay model, similar to that already used by medical clinics throughout the province.
What we need is for medical radiologist and imaging technician training centres to step up their game and provide the necessary personnel to serve a growing segment of the health care community that has been underserved for decades. We don’t need one province competing against another for the services of trained personnel because of shortages in the professions.
And we don’t need $3,000 MRIs when $600 or $800 covers the real costs. Right now, with the facts we have obtained, this represents the payment framework depending on where and when the MRI is provided.
You would think the Lean management senseis would have pointed that out a couple of years ago in one of their hoshins.
We need more people trained in the art of imaging, not a two-line system for imaging and one-line for treatment. That won’t reduce wait times. More people and more time spent on imaging just might, with less cost to the system.
