St. John’s mother says 2-year wait for MRI is ‘typical Newfoundland story’

Shining a spotlight on the health care situation specifically in New Finland and Labrador a woman in St John’s had to wait 2 years for an MRI only to learn when she finally got one that she has a brain tumor Peter Cowan is on the story outside the Health Sciences Center in St

John’s how long Peter are is this Common Place two years how long do people in The Province have to wait to get an all-important MRI yeah if you’re waiting to get an MRI at somewhere like the Health Sciences Center here in St John’s uh the health

Authority says it can be more than 400 Days from the time that your doctor says you need one till the time you’ll actually get in to get that important test especially if it’s considered non-urgent Alana McDonald is speaking out about her experience it was 2 years ago that she first started having

Symptoms like migraines a dizziness and facial numbness and she went in and saw her family doctor and from there they tried to F you know see whether or not it was something else like an issue with her eye um she ended up but the problem was the family doctor wasn’t able to

Order an MRI eventually she went to an ear nose and throat specialist who was able to order that MRI but because it was considered nonurgent it was then more than a year from when that test went in to when she was actually able to receive it she just recently got those

Results to find out that she has a 3 cm by 3 cm brain tumor and now is going to have to have invasive surgery she said unfortunately her experience is all too typical in the Health Care System right now our our Health Care system is broken

And the funny thing is is like I know people want me to be really angry about it but I choose not to like get angry about my situation because it doesn’t like doesn’t do me any well I’m trying to be in the best SP I can be for my surgery

Um it’s a typical New Finland story like that’s a typical wait time I actually got in a little bit ear earlier because I called and I pushed for it and that’s the sad thing to me the really frustrating thing for her is that because her tumor is too big she

Has to go through an invasive surgery that will actually leave her deaf in one ear she says if she had gotten that test sooner they might have caught it when it was smaller and she would have had more less invasive treatment options Peter what a story this a woman

And as you say it highlights a broader issue what is the provincial government planning to do to combat that long wait times yeah we spoke to the health Minister Tom Osborne and he says there are plans in place to try and get those uh numbers down he does point out that

If a doctor thinks uh this is urgent that someone will get in to get an MRI a whole lot faster uh but he says there’s plans to add a sixth MRI in cornerbrook and part of the problem is that there’s a big demand here in St John’s but other

Areas of the province the MRI machines aren’t as well used so they’re hoping to be able to uh spread out some of that demand and give people the choice of traveling a little bit further in order to get an MRI sooner we have a desire to

See shorten weight times for MRI in the province um you know uh any issue will highlight uh the need to see uh more expedited MRI services so we have been planning for some time for a sixth MRI uh Suite in the province so they’re going to look to see

Whether that six is enough and the health Minister has asked uh the health department to look at whether or not maybe they need to add a seventh MRI to keep up with that demand Peter thank you very much Peter Cowan live in St John’s

A St. John’s mother of three is facing major brain surgery, which she says could have been avoided if she had been able to get an MRI when her symptoms first developed almost two years ago.

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