A Nova Scotia man spent an extra four nights in hospital to avoid a long wait to get an MRI.

Stephen Stone of New Ross went into the Dartmouth General on June 1 after suffering tightness in his chest.

After six days, he was well enough to leave, but needed an MRI to investigate further. His family doctor told him if he was discharged, he'd face an eight-month wait for the MRI.

"But if I kept [on] as a day patient — if he gave me day parole like the prisoners — and I came back in time to go to bed and I'm not discharged technically, then when an opening in the MRI comes up, then I would get it," said Stone.

So he left the hospital during the day, returning to sleep in the bed. After four nights, he didn't get the MRI, but he got a similar treatment of an ultrasound with dye.

Stone would like to see MRIs in place at all large hospitals.

"We don't have enough MRIs to service all of the hospitals and I find that kind of bizarre. I think every large hospital should have an MRI," he said.

Stone's story is not common, says hospital official

There is a plan to put an MRI in place at the Dartmouth General, says Todd Howlett, the chief of staff at the Dartmouth General Hospital.

He says keeping patients in hospital beds to facilitate MRI tests is not very common.

Howlett says the standard is for patients to have access to an MRI within two days, but acknowledged that sometimes doesn't happen.

"I think most people would acknowledge that in the central zone we don't have enough MRI resources for the people we're trying to serve," he said.

Howlett says in the first three months of this year, 10 of 38 Dartmouth General patients requiring an MRI were able to have the test as outpatients, with waits of between one and five days.

Howlett said there was no additional cost to the health system as a result of Stone's lengthened stay in hospital.

"In reality, if the bed isn't being used, there is no cost saving," he said.

Howlett says it is only when a whole unit at a hospital closes down that there are cost savings. He says even if there is an empty bed, staff are still needed for the unit and the lights are kept on.

Stone is out of hospital and in good shape now, but says his adventure in treatment shows problems in the system. He said staff at the Dartmouth General treated him "like the King of Siam."