Bob Moroz says the need for MRIs, CT scans, ultrasounds, and x-rays haven’t gone away during the COVID-19 pandemic and wait times for patients have only gotten more severe.

Moroz explains some of the unique challenges for patients in northern Manitoba, including staff recruitment and retention, which in turn leads them having to travel to southern Manitoba to get the tests they need in order to determine their treatment options. He says every time a service is not available in the north that impacts northern residents in terms of having to travel to where those services might be available so there’s an entire cascade effect on that Manitoban who needs whatever test or whatever procedure they need and there’s time that’s required.  He adds the north is a pretty vast region and travel even through the pandemic becomes an issue where we’re seeing fewer and fewer flights to and from the north so it’s just an absolute cascade effect for people of the north who require these services.

Moroz goes on to say that due to the apparent lack of action to address this issue from the government many diagnostic technicians are burnt out and are considering leaving the field if they haven’t already done so.