No wait for MRI patients who can afford it

A year ago, a knee injury prevented Riyaz Hussein from getting on the treadmill or going to the gym.

"I had to go to a sports med specialist at UBC, and they said I needed an MRI and it was a six month wait," he told CTV News. "I decided to go private."

A new national report, released earlier this week, showed that BC patients who need a MRI wait an average of 84 days, whereas Ontarians wait just 32 days.

Hussein decided to go outside of the public health system to get his MRI quickly -- and then he got a big bill.

"It was close to a thousand dollars," he said.

But the good news for Hussein is that he doesn't need sugery -- just physio.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Dave Pinton