Northern MRI unit to benefit all patients, minister promises

The mobile MRI unit for the north, which recently launched in Thompson, will improve access to diagnostic imaging for patients both in the north and down south, the health minister said.

“It’s the first time the north has ever had MRI diagnostic capacity, and the MRI being mobile means that more communities are going to be served, which is fantastic,” Uzoma Asagwara said Friday.

The northern magnetic resonance imaging machine, which is parked at Thompson hospital, will be able to travel back and forth to The Pas by late fall.

“This is really life-changing for (northern) folks,” Asagwara said. “Previously, they would have been sent a flight away from home, a day’s worth of travel away from home. It’ll be able to serve patients on a wide spectrum of needs.”

The mobile MRI has completed 63 exams since June 6. It’s on track to do 46 per day, from 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Shared Health said.

It has the equivalent of two full-time technicians and 1.4 full-time equivalent nursing assistants. It is short two full-time MRI techs, a 0.5 nursing position and one clerical position. Filling them isn’t expected to be a challenge, a Shared Health spokesman said.

“All vacant positions are posted and recruitment is underway. An international MRI technician has been selected and is working through the hiring process” to fill one of the vacant positions, he said.

All Northern Health requisitions for an MRI are sent to the mobile MRI, aside from those for fly-in communities.

When asked how patients are prioritized, he said all requisitions go through Northern Health to the mobile MRI unit, and it serves all patients including inpatients and emergency patients.

He said 28 patients are booked for an MRI scan, and 662 patients are waiting to be booked. The oldest requisition is from Jan. 16, 2025.

The union that represents MRI technologists worries about a lack of MRI technologists in Manitoba and across Canada, and “robbing Peter to pay Paul” to staff them while wait times grow in Winnipeg.

“Northern Manitobans absolutely deserve access close to home for MRI testing,” said Jason Linklater, president of the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals.

“While they are launching this new MRI, wait times at other sites are around 26 weeks provincewide — 47 weeks at St. Boniface, 44 weeks at the Grace, and the benchmark for elective MRI is 8.5 weeks,” he said Friday.

“We’re way outside of that and totally unacceptable for wait times and primarily due to a lack of MRI technologists,” Linklater said. “I am concerned about the drop in staffing on other sites and that it’s going to increase wait times by robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

Asagwara said the northern MRI will help patients waiting in the south.

“This is going to take a tremendous amount of pressure off of those wait times in Winnipeg by allowing folks to get MRIs in their own communities closer to home in the north,” the minister said.

Fewer flights and lengthy road trips down south, mean fewer missed appointments and greater capacity, Asagwara said.

Advocates for an MRI machine in the hospital that’s being built in Portage la Prairie aren’t giving up.

“We’re still actively gaining signatures on petitions,” said Jeff Bereza, the Tory MLA for Portage.

The Portage Hospital Foundation has offered $5 million toward the cost of locating an MRI unit at the new hospital.

“The community wants to see it. I think a lot of other Manitobans want to see it,” said Bereza who provided the example of a man in west Winnipeg who called him to say he had to drive 600 kilometres to Dauphin and back for an MRI, and would have saved time and money if he could have had the scan 85 kilometres away in Portage.

The government has maintained that the north was a priority for the next MRI.

Linklater said the shortage of technologists has been a challenge for years.

“We know that Shared Health has struggled for a long time to recruit for MRI technologists,” he said. “There hasn’t been a credible plan put out to fix that yet.”

Asagwara said their government is working on a plan after the former Tory government “ignored” the issue for nearly eight years.

“We’re looking at modernizing the pathway to this training… making the programs more accessible, and introducing them to learners much earlier.”

Manitobans are taking the training through distance education, Asagwara pointed out, adding it should be offered here.

“We’re working with our really wonderful partners at post-secondary to improve the access to these programs and to create pathways that are easier for Manitobans to navigate.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca