It would not take less than 38 days to be able to obtain an MRI even in an oncological emergency (cancer) according to the 2014 Cemka-Eval health study carried out for the Association Imagerie Santé Avenir. That is 18 days more than the timeframe recommended by the Cancer Plan 2014-2019.
Since 2003, this barometer has been evaluating the waiting times for obtaining an MRI in France. The results of that of 2014 reveal a form of precariousness in this area and regional disparities in the rate of equipment.
Ever longer deadlines
It takes 7.2 days longer than 2013 to successfully obtain an MRI even in the case of an urgent oncological situation. That is, on average, a waiting time of 38 days. However, the Cancer Plan 2014 had estimated that it could not exceed 20 days.
While this delay has decreased in three regions (Languedoc-Roussillon, Midi-Pyrénées, PACA), this waiting time has increased in the rest of France. It even reaches 50 days in Alsace, Lorraine and more than two months (64 days) in Lower Normandy. No region offers access in less than 25 days.
Equipment figures too low
“The national equipment rate in metropolitan France is now 10.7 MRI per million inhabitants. The objective of 10 devices per million inhabitants which appeared in the previous Cancer Plan (2009-2013) for 2011 was finally reached with a delay of three years. The new Cancer Plan does not set objectives in terms of equipment but only in terms of deadlines, ”recalls the association in a press release.
But the increase in the number of machines remains very low. It is around 5.9% or 38 MRI installed in one year. Figures too low to make up for the delay observed in this area. Five regions did not have new equipment this year. 8 IRMs opened in Aquitaine, 7 in Languedoc-Roussillon, 4 in Ile-de-France and 3 in Nord-Pas-de-Calais and PACA, in regions where the equipment rate was already high. Corsica is the least equipped region, followed by Pays-de-la-Loire.
Yet the number of MRI prescriptionsincreased among other things, by 32.10% in urology for a prostate exam, and 24.4% for heart disease between 2010 and 2013.
