P.E.I. wait times for MRIs dropping now that out-of-province scans being covered

Raphael Caron · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 11, 2025 1:19 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 infinitesimal ago

The P.E.I. authorities has begun paying for Islanders to transverse the Confederation Bridge to Moncton to person backstage MRI scans, successful an effort to chopped hold times.

Health P.E.I. says wait times person gone from 17 months to 14 months since the programme started astir 3 weeks ago.

The agency's people clip is 1 month, but the request has been excessively precocious to let galore patients to beryllium seen that soon. The lone magnetic resonance imaging scanner owned by Health P.E.I. is located astatine the Queen Elizabeth Hospital successful Charlottetown.

Back successful December, Health P.E.I. announced it would wage for up to 2,600 backstage scans successful Moncton for Islanders connected the semi-urgent hold list, arsenic good arsenic covering their question costs.

Health P.E.I. divides patients into 3 categories depending connected however urgently they request an MRI scan. 

The astir caller information from the 3rd 4th shows 82 per cent of patients with the astir urgent need volition person a scan within the one-month people date. These patients are scanned within the province.

P.E.I. patients who are the slightest successful request of an MRI tin hold for up to 2 years to person one, and that scan volition instrumentality spot connected the Island.

It's the patients successful the mediate class of request who are being sent to Moncton at Health P.E.I.'s expense.

Officials astatine the Charlottetown-based Atlantic Veterinary College recently contacted Health P.E.I. to fto the bureau cognize they're unfastened to sharing their MRI scanner, as long arsenic Health P.E.I. has qualified unit to run it.