In 2013 in France, you have to wait more than a month on average to obtain urgent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The gap continues to widen between France and its European neighbors.
30.5 days is the average waiting time for an emergency appointment for a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examination. A worrying finding revealed this year again by the association Future health imaging (Isa) in its tenth annual survey published Thursday, April 25. The delay has increased slightly from last year when it was 29 days. This is twice as much as the objectives of the Cancer Plan 2009-2013 which set for 2010 an average waiting time of 15 days.
To carry out this study, the ISA has been proceeding in the same way since 2003: its investigators ask by telephone for an appointment to perform an emergency lumbar MRI as part of a research extension of cancer. And the reported results once again reveal deep regional disparities. While the waiting period is close to 50 days in Pays-de-Loire (45.4) or in Lower Normandy (49.7), it is around 25 days in Nord-Pas de Calais (21.6 ) or in Champagne-Ardenne (26.6). In the end, nowhere in France does the waiting time fall under 20 days and nearly half of French people (46%) live in regions where the delay exceeds 30 days.
The association attributes these poor results of French imagery to under-equipment in material. Indeed, “with a very low rate of new installations”, only 28 in one year (+ 4.5%, or two times less than in 2011), France still remains in the last places of Europe of the ‘West for MRI. The country has only 10.1 devices per million inhabitants. By way of comparison, Denmark and Germany are close to 30 devices per million inhabitants. According to the authors of the survey, “it would take around 1,260 MRIs, compared to 646 today, to reach the European average and come closer to respecting good practices and obvious ethical requirements”.
.
