Sask. patients will soon be able to buy CT scans
258 private MRIs purchased in first 2 months available
Saskatchewan patients will soon be able to pay for a CT scan with their own money.
It's something the Saskatchewan Party promised to do during the provincial election campaign earlier this year.
The government is already allowing people to buy a private MRI in the province — in a two-for-one system — which requires the person buying the MRI to spend enough for the private clinic to provide a second scan to a person in the public system.
Health Minister Dustin Duncan says during the first two months that people could pay for private MRIs in Saskatchewan — March and April of this year — 258 private scans were done.
Of those, 77 were paid for by individual patients. The other 181 were paid for by organizations such as the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Workers' Compensation Board.
Duncan says that means the same number will be done for those on public wait lists — without costing the province a penny.
"So it really has added to the capacity within the system without costing the taxpayers any dollars," Duncan said.
The Opposition NDP has said it would prefer the government focus on making the system better for everyone, rather than encouraging a two-tier system.