In Canada there is a 7-9 month wait for MRI's. What does this mean to Canadian VHL patients? I know what it means to me. It means that if I need a routine MRI check-up to follow the tumors or masses I already have, I need to make my next MRI appointment the same week I get the results from my present MRI scan. This is the only way that I have a chance to be close to the top of the six month waiting list in Ottawa, Ontario, for an MRI. If you've put your annual screening off for any length of time and think that you can go into your doctors office and have an MRI in a relatively short amount of time, you may be in for a rude awakening. The only way I've managed to keep up my annual screening that has more than once alerted me to major problems is to keep on top of the MRI process at every turn.

More than 7,000 people are waiting seven months and longer for all but emergency or urgent MRIs at the Ottawa Hospital. Across Ontario, the waiting list for an MRI is growing by almost 12,000 patients a year. Cancer patients are waiting months for a follow up MRI to see if their disease has responded to treatment. It's said that Ontario needs at least 80 more scanners to meet the current demand.

Those of us who are keenly affected by this problem need to raise the visibility of the issue and get government to put the capital money into the budget to fix the problem. In London, Ontario, for example, the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) clinic wrote for and recieved grant money to operate their existing MRI machine around the clock, making MS screens only a 1 month wait instead of a year. They did it by working with the local television station and newspaper to publicize the plight of the people involved, and by writing grants applications to get private money to supplement what the government is able to do. Toronto Raptors basketball star Vince Carter jumped the MRI queue by paying for his MRI. Some people with access only to Canadian Health Care have been waiting for 14 months and still don't even have an appointment.

Let's take action in our local communities to raise the importance of addressing this issue and devising plans of action to do it. Government money is not a bottomless pit, it needs to be supplemented by private funding by pharmaceuticals and imaging companies. The real work is getting real people's stories to be picked up by the newspapers and television journalists to get the real change (more MRIs and less waiting).

Meanwhile, I suggest that if you're putting off your screening don't put off making the appointment -- it may be a long wait, that could potentially cause you harm.

References: Articles from the Ottawa Citizen, January-February 2001: "MRI Backlog grows 12,000 a year", by Sharon Kirkey; "Rock to Ontario: Fix MRI crisis, MRI Cancer patients wait months", by Sharon Kirkey; "Athlete jumps MRI queue", by April Lindgren.

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As printed in the VHL Family Forum 9:2, June 2001. For permission to reprint, please contact VHL Family Alliance, editor@vhl.org. Further information is available from the VHL Family Alliance, info@vhl.org.