Sask. patients will soon be able to buy CT scans

Saskatchewan patients will soon be able to pay for a CT scan with their own money.

It's something the Saskatchewan Party promised to do during the provincial election campaign earlier this year.

• Private-pay CT scans, administrative health care cuts among Sask. Party's pledges

The government is already allowing people to buy a private MRI in the province in a two-for-one system which requiresthe person buying the MRI to spendenough for the private clinic to provide a second scan to a person in the public system.

Health Minister Dustin Duncan says duringthe first two months that people could pay for privateMRIsin SaskatchewanMarch and April of this year258 private scans were done.

Of those, 77 were paid for by individual patients. The other 181 were paid for by organizations such as the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Workers' Compensation Board.

Duncan says that means the same number will be done for those on public wait lists without costing the province a penny.

"So it really has added to the capacity within the system without costing the taxpayers any dollars," Duncan said.

The Opposition NDP has said it would prefer the government focus on making the system better for everyone, rather than encouraging a two-tier system.