Health P.E.I. defends money spent on after-hours radiology services

Health P.E.I. is pushing back against an auditor general's report that said it is overpaying a private Ontario firm for after-hours radiology services.

The payments include premiums for emergency service. But those services have to be delivered within 30 minutes in the case of a possible stroke, or 60 minutes in the case of other emergencies.

Last July, the AG's office released a report that found in almost half of the files it audited, premiums were paid for emergency services that were not delivered within that time.

In one case, a premium was paid for one-hour emergency service, but it took 36 hours to get the results.

Dr. Johan Viljoen, the chief medical officer for Health P.E.I., said these timelines aren't always realistic, and failing to meet them doesn't mean the service isn't working.

"If there's a high load of cases that is transmitted to a particular radiologist, the radiologist is a professional who not only knows how to read images, but can also decide the acuity of a response that is required," he said.

"I can definitely foresee that if you receive a significant number of images to read at one time, that you are going to prioritize them, you're going to take care of the stroke within 20 minutes and [another] may take a little longer before the report goes out."

But Green Party MLA Peter Bevan-Baker said it's a matter of concern if the timelines that were agreed to are not being met, from both a fiscal point of view, and a patient safety point of view.

"If it was unrealistic, if the expectations and the parameters in that contract are not fair, not realistic, we've had four-and-a-half years for somebody to put their hand up and sit down with the company in Ontario," he said.

"Or if they are realistic, which I believe that they are, enforce them properly. But neither of those things has happened."

The AG's report analyzed 30 billings, and found almost half of the premiums were paid for emergency services when they should not have been.

Viljoen said he thinks the sample size was too small.

"All due respect to the AG... but you know, if you look at the sample size and if you look at the fact that we do tens of thousands of images annually in our diagnostic imaging departments... I would find drawing strong conclusions from a small sample size, personally, you know, I take note," he said.

Viljoen said Island emergency department doctors he spoke to said the Ontario firm is providing good service.