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For Immediate Release
November 17, 2002
LOCATE MRI CLINIC IN QUINTE
Friday, the provincial government announced it is asking for bids to operate privately-run MRI clinics. Private clinics will house five magnetic resonance imaging machines and five computerized tomography scanners. The machines will operate through the Independent Health Facilities Act and within Ontario’s publicly funded health-care system.
According to Health and Long-Term Care Minister Tony Clement, this is not the first step to two-tier health care. Queue-jumping, or purchasing faster access to medically necessary services, will not be tolerated as it violates our own legislation and the Canada Health Act, he said. Critics will disagree. But, most will agree better access to MRI technology is a priority. Now, waiting lists are simply too long. The new machines will be located in private clinics in York Region, Kitchener, Waterloo
or Guelph, Durham Region, Oakville or Mississauga and the Kingston area. Could Quinte be considered part of the Kingston area? We certainly make enough trips to Kingston for medical care. Currently, we voyage to Kingston for MRI technology, where the waiting list frequently stretches to six months. The local initiative for MRI service, aided by Quinte MRI (a private company that provides MRI technology and technologists to communities in need), envisions a mobile MRI unit that could be integrated into the hospitals radiology department.
A mobile unit, says Bob Kitcher, chairman of the Rural Health Sciences Network, would be particularly suited to this area, which serves 160,000 people who live in the 7,000 sq. km that makes up Hastings and Prince Edward counties.
We look forward to learning where the government plans to locate the MRI clinic. We hope one of the five machines will serve the needs of people here.
Thank you to the Staff of the Belleville Intelligencer for sending me an electronic copy of this Editorial and for reconizing the need that Ontario and Belleville has for more MRI facilities.
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