Subject:
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Re: A question for my Canadian pals
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Fri, 8 Oct 2004 01:44:44 GMT
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Viewed:
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1094 times
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In lugnet.loc.ca, Dave Schuler wrote:
> calls "Communist," is so inefficient that a patient who requires an MRI has to
> wait four months before a machine is available. Is this true?
Dave, I can give you another data point about MRIs, but everyone else
has pretty much covered it that if you need it immediately, you will get
it, otherwise, you'll have a long wait.
I was getting something checked out and the neurologist prescribed a full
battery of tests including MRI, EEG, CTscan, etc. These were largely
precautionary, so there was no dire need for things right away. I was able
to get the EEG within a week or so, and that's a lengthy procedure. While
at the hospital, I was told by the EEG tech to wander down to the CT lab
and see if they had a cancellation hole where they could pop me in,
because otherwise I could be waiting weeks/months. They made a hole, so
I got the CT the same day, and it was done inside of about 4 minutes!
The MRI however was a different story. I was told the waiting list was
up to 10 months long (I think, maybe it was 16). But I was also told that
I could have my name placed on a short-notice cancellation list, which I
did. I was able to get the MRI after about 4 months because of a
cancellation.
BTW, everything checked out fine.
A slightly different story was a friend of mine who was having some episodes,
which may have been due to MS (I was in the same situation). An MRI is a
pretty sure way to spot MS. She was on the same huge waiting list. She
went to a different neurologist in a different city, who saw things a
little more urgently, and she got the MRI within a couple days.
Unfortunately, it came back positive for MS. But in her case the initial
delay was not simply due to high demand on MRI facilities, it was due to
the doctor not viewing the condition with a degree of urgency that it
perhaps warranted.
From my experience, waiting lists are shorter in smaller cities. Their
ratio of patients-to-machines appears to be lower.
Hope that helps,
KDJ
______________________________
LUGNETer #203, Ontario, Canada
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | A question for my Canadian pals
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| This will FUT ot.debate, but I wanted to start the question here. I'm in a discussion with a person whom I shall term, charitably, a knucklehead. Many of his views are ridiculous, and I can demonstrate their folly with citations and argument fairly (...) (20 years ago, 6-Oct-04, to lugnet.loc.ca)
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