{"id":713729,"date":"2026-06-04T04:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T04:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/713729\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T04:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T04:06:12","slug":"red-deer-womans-31-month-wait-for-mri-sparks-fear-and-anger-really-unreasonable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/713729\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Deer woman\u2019s 31-month wait for MRI sparks fear and anger: \u2018Really unreasonable\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re looking for Linda Burns, one of the best places to start is in her garden.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Red Deer<\/a> woman can be found out there as long as the sun is shining \u2014 calling it her escape from dealing with physical pain every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s what I love to do, I love to take care of my home,\u201d Burns said.<\/p>\n

Burns had spinal fusion surgery several years ago after a serious car accident and gets checked up annually.<\/p>\n

Recently, she says she\u2019s been dealing with \u201cdeferred pain\u201d in her neck, which can even make a task like going to pick up groceries a challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pain is excruciating,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s excruciating if I overdo it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burns\u2019 doctor believes there\u2019s degeneration in the disks of her neck, but the only way to find out for sure is with a MRI.<\/p>\n

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In early May, the requisition was sent off. At the time, Burns was hoping it would be sometime in the next 12 to 15 months.<\/p>\n

\u201c(My doctor) told me if I put my name on the short list, I could get in sooner \u2014 he said he had patients that got in anywhere from two weeks (after requisition), to two months, to waiting until their date.\u201d<\/p>\n

But even waiting until September of 2027 sounded OK with Burns compared to what she saw when she received a letter from Alberta Health Services this week.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tThe letter Linda Burns received earlier this week, stating her MRI appointment had been scheduled for December, 2028 \u2014 31 months from now.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGlobal News\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

It said her appointment at the Red Deer Regional Hospital was scheduled for 7:20 a.m. on Tuesday, December 19, 2028 \u2014\u00a0 31 months from now, which Burns said is \u201creally unreasonable.\u201d<\/p>\n

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It also had her worried about what could happen to her neck between now and then.<\/p>\n

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\u201cTwo and a half years? I could be paralyzed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot can happen,\u201d Burns explained, \u201cIt\u2019s affected my life. I\u2019ve slowed down because, you know, I\u2019m not 40 any more, but just even my day-to-day\u2026 putting on a jacket\u2026 it\u2019s just very frustrating.\u201d<\/p>\n

As she deals with the possibility of waiting until the winter of 2028 to just get a look at her neck, she says she\u2019s also watching the provincial government take steps toward privatizing the health care system.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s frightening. It\u2019s got me worried. It\u2019s gotten my family worried, my friends worried, and I never thought I would be in this position,\u201d Burns said.<\/p>\n

Late last year, the provincial government tabled Bill 11<\/a>, legislation that would allow some doctors to work in both the public and private health-care systems simultaneously.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tProtesters fear \u2018American-style\u2019 two-tiered health care is coming to Canada\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

While some experts say it will speed up access to care, Burns believes she won\u2019t be one of them and worries about feeling forced to pay out of pocket for a private test.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m a senior on a fixed income. It\u2019s not cheap to get these things done, right?<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhy am I having to put this money out (for private health care) when I\u2019ve paid into the system my entire life and have to sacrifice just to see if I actually need surgery?\u201d<\/p>\n

Health advocates say stories like Burns\u2019 are becoming commonplace in Alberta because of the provincial push for a two-tier health care system.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe provincial government is creating a system where those with the ability to pay get to skip the queue,\u201d said Chris Gallaway, Friends of Medicare executive director.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe regularly hear from people who are told it\u2019ll be two (years) to get a MRI but if you pay, you could get it in the next couple weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

At private facilities like MIC medical imaging, a MRI is listed as costing $850 but when contrast is needed, the price goes up to $1,000<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Like Burns, Gallaway believes the province\u2019s action is in the wrong place.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we really need, and we\u2019ve needed it for a long time, is a workforce plan for health care in Alberta that includes diagnostics.\u201d Gallaway said.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The plan) needs to look at what we need in our hospitals, in our community, to get their diagnostics done so people can get the care they need.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDoctors warn self-referral testing plan could strain Alberta\u2019s health system\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Global News reached out to both the Ministry of Hospitals and Surgical Services and Acute Care Alberta, but as of publishing had not received a response.<\/p>\n

Burns says she\u2019s fairly certain surgery is in her future \u2014 but given the wait for just the MRI, she believes that could be five or six years away.<\/p>\n

Until then, what will she do?<\/p>\n

\u201cMake some noise because that\u2019s the only way we\u2019re going to be heard,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t just be a fly on the wall and watch the show. You\u2019ve got to speak up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013with files from Kabi Moulitharan, Global news<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019re looking for Linda Burns, one of the best places to start is in her garden. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":713730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[118258,17225,49,48,84,392,61827,258628],"class_list":["post-713729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-alberta-health-care","tag-alberta-health-services","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-red-deer","tag-red-deer-regional-hospital"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713729","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=713729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/713730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}