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Patients seeking diagnosis for cancer and kidney stones in Alberta have seen their wait times for CT scans double in recent months, by far exceeding national wait time targets for acceptable care.

Dr. Paul Parks, an emergency room physician, said he has learned after speaking with colleagues across the province that the longer waits are a result of budget constraints, though Alberta’s health authority disputes his conclusions.

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Parks, spokesman for emergency medicine at the Alberta Medical Association, said technicians have been ordered to cut the number of non-urgent, outpatient CT scans available in the province, in order to meet budget pressures.

The cuts mean more patients are showing up at emergency rooms in need of diagnosis from this specialized X-ray equipment, widely used to identify cancers, injuries, some diseases and many other ailments, Parks said.

“If you’ve got bad symptoms and your family doctor ordered you a scan in January and it’s not booked until July, they either go to emergency on their own, or their symptoms get worse and they come to emergency,” Parks said.

“It’s less costly to do scans as outpatients than in emergency,” he said.

Most patients considered to be top priority for scheduled, outpatient CT scans wait up to four weeks, double what they waited in April, Alberta’s health authority reported. According to targets set by the Canadian Association of Radiologists, these patients should wait just seven days.