Medical specialists in Canada, working within limited budgets, have less access to modern medical technologies than their counterparts in the United States. For example, there are 223 CT scanners in all of Canada, half as many per million people as in the U.S.

Access to magnetic resonance imagers (MRI) is even more restricted, since there are only one-fifth as many MRIs per million population in Canada as in the U.S.:

• Ontario has the most MRIs of any province, at 12, and plans to increase the number to 34. This would give it three MRIs per million, compared to six per million in the U.S.

• There is only one MRI each in the provinces of Saskatchwan, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and none in Manitoba, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick.

• Ultrasound tests, on the other hand, are quite common and many specialists have their own machines.

The limited number of CT scanners and MRIs means patients must wait longer for diagnostic tests before treatment. Half the patients needing an MRI must wait more than two months.