{"id":506771,"date":"2026-03-01T05:43:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T05:43:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/506771\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T05:43:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T05:43:27","slug":"the-cost-of-waiting-why-some-patients-go-private-for-faster-diagnosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/506771\/","title":{"rendered":"The cost of waiting: Why some patients go private for faster diagnosis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

For some Canadians, paying for faster access to elective procedures is worth the cost.GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

Courtney Murphy-Baum knew her body well. So when the avid runner and outdoor enthusiast began feeling unexplained tingling in her legs, she didn\u2019t dismiss it. She suspected something serious: multiple sclerosis (MS). <\/p>\n

MS is notoriously difficult to diagnose, as its symptoms often mimic other health conditions. For Murphy-Baum, a woman in her mid-30s living on Vancouver Island, that meant months of uncertainty. When she woke up one day with blurry vision in one eye, she immediately made an appointment with an eye doctor, who diagnosed her with optic neuritis. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis was kind of devastating for me, because obviously, I\u2019d been doing my own research. I knew the stats that if you get optic neuritis, the stats are very, very high of being diagnosed with MS in the next five to 15 years,\u201d Murphy-Baum says. \u201cBut at that point, no one had said [it was] MS because they didn\u2019t want to scare me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her doctor sent out a requisitions for MRI scans, but warned her the wait could be up to a year \u2013 a timeline Murphy-Baum found unacceptable. <\/p>\n

\u201cI saw that with science today, MS has come a long way [in terms of] disease-modifying therapies and drugs. The sooner you get on them, the better your future health will be with brain functions [and] physical abilities,\u201d says Murphy-Baum. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to wait around a year for [a diagnosis].\u201d<\/p>\n

She looked into other options, including travelling to the United States for treatment \u2013 but then she found a clinic with a private MRI machine in nearby Nanaimo, B.C. After only 10 days of waiting – and paying $1,500 of her own money – she got the test, receiving an official MS diagnosis two days later. <\/p>\n

Last year, private healthcare accounted<\/a> for 29 per cent of total healthcare spending in Canada, or about $107.88-billion. This usually refers to anything that isn\u2019t covered by the public system, such as dental care, vision care, prescription drugs and elective procedures. But it can also apply to cases like Murphy-Baum\u2019s, where Canadians pay out of pocket to access publicly-covered services that aren\u2019t available quickly enough. <\/p>\n

According to the Canadian Medical Association, this is a pervasive problem in Canada. The organization commissioned two surveys<\/a> in 2023, which found 30 per cent of Canadians could not access healthcare in the preceding 12 months, with the most common reason (42 per cent) being long wait times. While most respondents (63 per cent) believe it\u2019s important to ensure that all Canadians get equal treatment from the country\u2019s healthcare system, just over half (53 per cent) are open to paying for access to health services.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s something Connie Jorsvik has seen first-hand. As the founder of Patient Pathways, she helps patients and families in British Columbia navigate serious and complex illnesses, often when the public system falls short. Before launching the service in 2011, she spent 25 years as a registered nurse. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf they\u2019re willing to pay privately, all it takes is a Google search to find private specialists \u2013 but I highly recommend that people really do their homework on who those doctors are, what their credentials are and what their ratings are before they go,\u201d Jorsvik says. <\/p>\n

Many Canadians worry that turning to private healthcare could undermine the public system. According to Canadian Doctors for Medicare, a national organization dedicated to preserving Canada\u2019s publicly-funded health care system, the idea that privatization will reduce wait times is a myth. <\/p>\n

\u201cHuman resources are finite. The same pool of doctors, nurses and other health professionals currently working in the publicly-funded system would be pulled from that system to work in the privately-funded system,\u201d the organization says on its website<\/a>. \u201cA parallel private system reduces the incentive to work in the publicly-funded system [and] reduced capacity in the publicly-funded system leads to worsening wait times for those who cannot afford to pay privately \u2026 A review of international health<\/a> systems found that increased private financing was associated with reduced accessibility, equity and quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Jorsvik believes that \u201cpatients should be allowed to go where they need to go, to get the care that they need.\u201d She notes that someone waiting for a hip replacement might be in extreme pain, unable to work or live and willing to pay whatever they can for relief. <\/p>\n

Private care may offer speed, but it\u2019s not without its own potential pitfalls. For example, patients who travel out of province or abroad for treatment should confirm they\u2019ll still have access to follow-up care when they return home. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re already waiting for a surgeon to see you for six months to a year and that\u2019s the reason you\u2019re [travelling], who is going to take care of you when you come back?\u201d Jorsvik says. \u201cI\u2019ve heard many horror stories of people leaving for surgery, having a problem in that province or other country \u2013 such as an infection \u2013 and then nobody will see them when they come back [home] because [health care practitioners] won\u2019t handle a problem that they didn\u2019t cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once patients confirm that a specialist or surgeon will support their care back home, they can start exploring other options, such as private specialists or surgeons out of the province or country. Often, Jorsvik adds, their home specialist or surgeon will have colleagues they can recommend. <\/p>\n

But even with referrals, navigating private care requires careful consideration. There is no easy answer for if or when people should pursue it. <\/p>\n

\u201cI believe in weighing risk versus benefit in everything in health care. What is the risk for me going out of the province? Not having a doctor when I come back is a risk. [So is] the travel and the cost. And what is the benefit? The benefit would be, I can have the surgery in two weeks instead of waiting two years,\u201d Jorsvik says. \u201cAnd it\u2019s going to really be dependent on each person whether the risk is worth it.\u201d <\/p>\n

For Murphy-Baum, paying for an earlier MRI was absolutely worth the cost. Although she is grateful she was able to find a private clinic through her own research, she does wish her doctors had suggested the idea to her and even let her know there was a private clinic that was close by. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been medicated for about six months and I\u2019m feeling so much better \u2013 the medications are working really well,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m very lucky that I thought of [going to Nanaimo], but if I didn\u2019t, I would be in a lot worse shape right now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: For some Canadians, paying for faster access to elective procedures is worth the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1401,49,48,84,392,20391,2922,59596,88319,164337],"class_list":{"0":"post-506771","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-adveditorial","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-healthcare","13":"tag-medical-costs","14":"tag-noastack","15":"tag-ordid3815653568te","16":"tag-private-healthcare","17":"tag-universal-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}