A multiple sclerosis (MS) sufferer says she feels let down and scared after waiting two-and-a-half years for a routine MRI scan in Wellington.<\/p>\n
The woman is supposed to have regular scans, but the city is struggling with only one scanning machine and not enough staff – forcing wait times to blow out.<\/p>\n
Te Whatu Ora Health NZ data shows a massive regional variation in wait times for MRI scans last year – five days on the West Coast, but 89 days in the Wellington region.<\/p>\n
MRI scans are important to diagnose a range of illnesses, including cancer and heart disease.<\/p>\n
Health NZ said it was recruiting more staff in Wellington to fix the situation.<\/p>\n
A Wellington woman with MS told\u00a0Checkpoint<\/i>\u00a0she was living in a state of anxiety waiting for a scan.<\/p>\n
“When I was first diagnosed I was told I would be having annual MRIs just to check the progression of the disease,” she said.<\/p>\n
“It was quite good for the first couple of years. I was having them quite regularly, but it’s been just over two-and-a-half years now.<\/p>\n
“I keep asking my neurologist and my MS nurse when it is happening and they really can’t give me an answer.”<\/p>\n
The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said she was hopeful of having a scan this year because she was due for a medication review.<\/p>\n
“I feel quite let down, to be honest. It’s quite scary and takes a toll emotionally when you don’t really know what your body’s doing or how far along the disease track you are.”<\/p>\n
She had spoken to people with MS in other regions who had scans more regularly and quickly, and urged health officials to get an extra scanner and more staff in Wellington.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the woman continues to have to wait for a progress report on her condition.<\/p>\n
“I feel like I’ve been left on my own, which is pretty disappointing. When you’re young – I’m in my early 30s – it’s pretty scary when you get diagnosed with MS. You’re already faced with this uncertain future.<\/p>\n
“You rely on those MRIs to track your progress and see where you’re going. To not have that for two-and-a-half years, I’m kind of in the dark.”<\/p>\n
rnz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A multiple sclerosis (MS) sufferer says she feels let down and scared after waiting two-and-a-half years for a routine MRI scan in Wellington. The woman is supposed to have regular scans, but the city is struggling with only one scanning machine and not enough staff – forcing wait times to blow out. Te Whatu Ora […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":10491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10490"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10492,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10490\/revisions\/10492"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}