Mobile MRI planned for Northern Manitoba

WINNIPEG – A mobile MRI promised for northern Manitoba will be ready to roll in May, health minister Uzoma Asagwara (pictured) says. This year’s provincial budget included $3 million to staff the scanner on wheels to reduce wait times and allow people who need scans to get them closer to where they live.

Asagwara said the equipment and staff to operate it will travel between Thompson and The Pas. She said the priority was to provide the diagnostic equipment in the North, where residents face far more significant challenges to get the tests.

“Surrounding communities will be able to access MRIs in the North, which is huge,” the health minister told the Free Press, adding that the region’s residents previously had to travel to Winnipeg for the diagnostic imaging.

”Anybody who would have needed an MRI previously would have had to leave their community, catch a flight, drive their vehicle, make arrangements for child care or leave work or make some pretty big personal sacrifices in order to get an MRI,” said Asagwara.

“We said that that was wrong, that the previous approach under the previous government was unacceptable.”

The mobile northern MRI was an NDP promise made during the 2023 election campaign.

The latest provincial data posted online in December showed 24,117 Manitobans were waiting for MRI scans.

Progressive Conservative MLA Jeff Bereza (Portage la Prairie) called out the province for ignoring his community’s pleas for an MRI after its hospital foundation raised $5 million in pledges.

“My question to the minister is, why aren’t we taking the Portage Hospital Foundation’s money and buying a mobile MRI?” Bereza asked.

He has lobbied the NDP government to incorporate an MRI unit into plans for the new hospital under construction, which is expected to open in 2026.

Asagwara said the priority was to provide the diagnostic equipment in the North, where residents face far more significant challenges to get the tests, adding the cost associated with placing an MRI unit in a particular facility go beyond the purchase price and include the resources to operate it.

“Not only are we purchasing and doing the work of securing the MRI and getting it into the North, but we have taken steps to ensure it’s fully staffed,” the minister said.

The province is adding training seats to ensure more MRI technologists are trained in Manitoba, Asagwara said.

Source: Winnipeg Free Press