Private-clinic trial resumes as B.C. aims to take action against doctors
VANCOUVER — Excruciating pain had Tamara Parrales heading to the emergency department multiple times for nearly a year, and when a specialist brought up the possibility of ovarian cancer, she wasn’t prepared to wait several months for an MRI in the public system.
Parrales, 36, made the decision to pay $1,100 to have the diagnostic test in a private clinic last fall and finally had surgery in March.
“If they say you might have cancer and then you have to wait four to six months to find out if you do, that should be urgent enough that they should get you in as soon as possible,” she said, adding the MRI showed she had endometriosis.
“It was almost a year before I had surgery and the reason for that is the surgeon has only one day a month of operating time,” Parrales said.