The waiting time for a non-urgent MRI and a non-urgent ultrasound at Mater Dei Hospital is of four months, Health Minister Chris Fearne said in Parliament on Tuesday.

Fearne was answering a set of parliamentary questions posed by PN MP Ian Mario Vassallo.

Vassallo asked how long the waiting list is for an MRI, for an ultrasound, and for orthopaedic assessment at Mater Dei Hospital.

Fearne replied that in the case of both an MRI and an ultrasound, an analysis carried out on 30 April this year showed that the average waiting time for either of these procedures is of four months in the case of routine cases through the Outpatients Department.

The Health Minister added though that in cases which are deemed to be urgent, the patient skips the queue and the procedure is done as soon as possible.

In the case of orthopaedic assessments, Fearne said that the average waiting time is of 83 days for non-urgent cases.

The government inaugurated a new MRI machine in November 2020, which cost €3.5 million, and Mater Dei’s capacity for MRIs was increased to around 800 per week.

Commenting back then, Fearne said that the waiting time back then was of a year and a half. 

MRI appointments are frequently scheduled at all hours of the day – including late at night and in the early hours of the morning – in an effort to cope with the demand for the scans.