Private U.S. clinics lure Manitobans facing long MRI, diagnostic service waits south of the border
CBC
Private clinics in the U.S. are marketing their services to Manitobans facing long wait times for MRIs and other imaging and diagnostic services in the province.
The Unity Medical Center in Grafton, N.D. — just over a two-hour drive from Winnipeg — says it receives between 15 and 20 Canadian patients every month.
"They're just coming down because they can't get into Canadian doctors on a timely manner when they're in so much pain," said radiology services supervisor Jess Tanke.
"We can usually get them in within two weeks for an MRI, at the latest."
For other services, the medical centre "can usually get them in within the same week, if not the next day," said Tanke.
CEO Alan O'Neil says the number of patients has been steadily building up to volumes seen before the COVID-19 pandemic, which temporarily shut down non-essential cross-border traffic.
O'Neil said the centre has been ramping up social media marketing to advertise its services north of the border.
A bit further south, the Grand Forks Clinic has been sending out mailers to Winnipeggers advertising the opportunity to get an "MRI in days, not months."
"I don't think the demand is going to go away," O'Neil said.
"I think you'll find it's fairly frequent towns that are close to the Canadian border probably do get some Canadians coming down for this type of thing.… It's just going to happen because of the demand."
Wait times for the province's 14 MRI scanners ranged from about eight weeks in Brandon and Dauphin to more than 11 months for adults at Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre as of June, according to provincial data. Annual median wait times have gone up from 13 weeks two years ago to 21 weeks this year.
Median wait times for CT scans have also gone up from five weeks in 2022 to eight this year. The median wait for ultrasounds was also eight weeks in 2024.
Most Canadian patients looking for MRIs at Unity Medical in North Dakota are suffering from some joint, muscle or ligament injury, Tanke said. For CT scans, it's usually people dealing with abdominal pain or who are staging cancer, she said.
A page for Canadian patients on Unity's website advertises MRI scan prices beginning at slightly over $2,000 US (just over $2,700 Cdn).
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