Vancouver hospital breaking law: minister

B.C. Health Minister George Abbott says St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver appears to be violating provincial policy and the Canada Health Act by allowing patients to pay for MRI use during off hours.

Abbott says it looks like waiting-list queue jumping, and has ordered an investigation by ministry officials.

"We have a policy that private third-party insurers are not allowed to use those machines," he said. "There are private MRIs that they can access entirely legally."

The medical broker involved says he can always find private MRIs for his clients. But Richard Baker of Timely Medical Alternatives argues there is no reason why the publicly funded machines should sit idle when patients need them.

"The thing I worry about is that St. Paul's will revert back to having these huge deficits and the taxpayers will have to fund it," he said.

Meanwhile, NDP health critic Adrian Dix says the Campbell government is to blame for the situation for not putting enough money into the public health-care system.

"It's illegal under the Canada Health Act, and it is immoral for the minister of health to sit back and allow people to wait and suffer on wait lists."