winnipegsun.com - Manitoba - Sale passes buck: "The provincial government admits it can't stop private clinics from selling MRI scans to the public unless Ottawa decides the practice contravenes the Canada Health Act.
'We don't have any choice, they're the body that sanctions us,' Health Minister Tim Sale said when pressed by reporters in the legislature yesterday. '(The feds) are the ones that will levy fines if this machine contravenes the act and they're also the ones that won't levy fines if it doesn't.'
The legalities of selling elective MRI scans outside of a hospital became a hot-button issue in Manitoba when Maples Surgical Centre in Winnipeg purchased a scanner earlier this month.
'Growing by the day'
Once the private clinic receives its accreditation from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, it will begin providing MRI scans at $695 to its list of patients that is 'growing by the day,' said Dwayne Venter, the general manager of the clinic.
'Hopefully it'll be within the next two weeks,' said Venter. 'I've got people contacting me, it's growing by the day. They're almost banging down the door.'
The Tories and Venter insist federal and provincial legislation does not prohibit private clinics from selling elective MRI scans."
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