Calculator
MRI wait vs travelling to China: a cost and time calculator
Figures checked 26 October 2026 (Taipei time)
Should you wait for an MRI at home or fly to China for it? Pick your country, the scan and the kind of hospital, and the calculator adds the scan price to your flight, hotel and daily costs. Every default comes from a named source, and you can type over all of them.
Canada default wait: CIHI national median for 2025 (59.4 days for MRI, 14.7 for CT); one in ten waited more than 206.5 days for MRI. Default cost: a private knee MRI in Alberta, C$749. A public scan is free at the point of use.
Your estimate
$2,160
total for a one-area MRI trip to China
- Scan fee or package price$450
- Flight, hotel, meals and transport$1,710
- Cost at home$532
- Difference$1,628 more in China
- Typical wait at home8.5 weeks
Yuan prices are converted at the official rate shown on this page. Public-hospital caps exclude the consultation fee and contrast medicine; package prices are the providers' published starting prices. The travel defaults are examples: change them to your own figures. This is an estimate, not a quote.
Check the price for my scanRuns in your browser; nothing you type is sent to us. Yuan converted at ¥6.7162 = $1 (26 October 2026). Canadian dollars at C$1 = ¥4.7732, pounds at £1 = ¥8.9505, the same day's official rates.
Where the default numbers come from
- Canada wait: the Canadian Institute for Health Information measures days from the scan order to the scan, April to September each year. In 2025 the national median for MRI was 59.4 days and the 90th percentile 206.5 days. For CT, 14.7 and 144.2 days. Quebec, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador are not in the data.
- Canada cost: Insight Medical Imaging in Alberta lists a private knee MRI at C$749 and a brain MRI at C$799, with contrast C$175 extra.
- England wait: NHS England counts people still waiting at the end of each month. At the end of August 2026 the median wait so far was 3 weeks for MRI and 1.9 weeks for CT. The NHS standard is that fewer than 1% wait six weeks or more; for MRI it was 22%.
- UK cost: Vista Health lists MRI at £249 off-peak, £360 standard and £380 fast track, and a one-part CT at £445.
- US cost: median hospital cash prices from a study of hospitals' own price files as of July 2021. Prices have moved since; use your own quote if you have one.
- Australia: no national wait figure exists. Medicare pays part of a referred scan and clinics set their own fees, so enter your own out-of-pocket cost.
- China: the 2025 official caps, a private hospital's list price and two coordinators' published starting prices. See the MRI in China price table.
- Travel: the flight, hotel and daily figures are round examples, not sourced prices. Replace them with real quotes.
MRI waits by province in Canada, 2025
| Province | MRI, median days | CT, median days |
|---|---|---|
| Manitoba | 151 | 60 |
| British Columbia | 89 | 28 |
| Alberta | 72 | 32 |
| Nova Scotia | 68 | 45 |
| Saskatchewan | 51 | 21 |
| Ontario | 47 | 6 |
| Prince Edward Island | 41.9 | 12.1 |
Source: CIHI data tables, 2025 data year. Medians, from order to scan; urgent cases excluded.
How to read the result
The calculator answers two questions: how much the whole trip costs, and how that compares with what you would pay at home. It does not decide whether you should go. A scan in China only helps if your doctor at home will use the images and report, and if you can be there on the hospital's dates.
Do not travel for an urgent problem. If your doctor says the scan is urgent, ask about urgent booking in your own system.
Next steps: read how a scan is ordered in China, how to bring the images home and entering China for a scan. Back to the China MRI cost overview.
MRI wait vs China: common questions
Is it cheaper to get an MRI in China than in Canada?
A public MRI in Canada costs you nothing at the point of use, so a trip to China only saves money against a private scan. What China can change is the wait: half of Canadian MRI patients waited more than 59 days in 2025. Whether a trip is worth it depends on your flight cost and how long you can wait.
MRI China vs Canada wait: how long is the wait in Canada?
CIHI measured a national median of 59.4 days from order to scan in 2025, with one in ten patients waiting more than 206.5 days. The Fraser Institute's physician survey estimated 18.1 weeks for the same year.
What is the NHS MRI wait alternative?
In England 22% of people waiting for an MRI at the end of August 2026 had waited six weeks or more. The usual alternatives are a private scan in the UK, which costs a few hundred pounds, or a scan abroad. Compare both in the calculator.
How many days do I need in China for an MRI?
Plan for at least one outpatient visit, the scan, and collecting the report and images. Hospitals decide their own appointment times and we do not promise any wait. Ask the hospital or coordinator for dates before you book flights.
Sources
- Wait Times for Priority Procedures in Canada, 2008 to 2025: data tables (MRI and CT, 50th and 90th percentile days). Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), 25 June 2026. Read 26 October 2026.
- Waiting Your Turn: Wait Times for Health Care in Canada, 2025 Report, as reported by HR Reporter (the Fraser Institute site blocked our reader). Fraser Institute; HR Reporter, 10 December 2025. Read 26 October 2026.
- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI): private MRI prices. Insight Medical Imaging, Alberta. Read 26 October 2026.
- Diagnostic Waiting Times and Activity, August 2026 Monthly Report. NHS England, 8 October 2026. Read 26 October 2026.
- MRI scans: prices. Vista Health (UK private diagnostics). Read 26 October 2026.
- CT scans: prices. Vista Health (UK private diagnostics). Read 26 October 2026.
- Comparison of US Hospital Cash Prices and Commercial Negotiated Prices for 70 Services (Jiang, Makary, Bai), JAMA Network Open 2021;4(12):e2140526. JAMA Network Open, 21 December 2021. Read 26 October 2026.
- Medicare Benefits Schedule, item 63560 (MRI of the knee). Australian Government Department of Health, 1 July 2026. Read 26 October 2026.
- Paying for diagnostic testing. healthdirect Australia, November 2025. Read 26 October 2026.
- Notice on standardising and adjusting radiology examination price items in Shanghai, Hu Yi Bao Jia Cai Fa [2025] No. 11 (沪医保价采发〔2025〕11号) (in Chinese). Shanghai Municipal Healthcare Security Administration and Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, 16 April 2025. Read 26 October 2026.
- Shenzhen forwarding of the Guangdong notice on radiology examination price items, Shen Yi Bao Fa [2025] No. 8 (深医保发〔2025〕8号), Annex 2 (in Chinese). Shenzhen Healthcare Security Administration, 27 April 2025. Read 26 October 2026.
- Price list (service guide). Shanghai International Medical Center (SIMC). Read 26 October 2026.
- Costs. China MedPass (chinamedpass.com), a coordination service. Read 26 October 2026.
- Pricing. MRI in China (mriinchina.com), a coordination service. Read 26 October 2026.
- RMB central parity rates, 26 October 2026 (USD/CNY 6.7162). China Foreign Exchange Trade System (chinamoney.com.cn), 26 October 2026. Read 26 October 2026.