Figures compiled by the BBC show there are nearly 3,000 people waiting for an MRI scan in Northern Ireland.

Some patients will have to wait for two years for the scan which can detect internal illness in any part of the body.

Even some cases, which have been classified as very urgent, will have to wait up to three months.

Some people will wait two years to be seen - and it is only after that that doctors will decide what the correct treatment for them should be.

Whatever the medical condition, the system is overwhelmed with too many patients waiting to be seen.

There are plans to double the number of MRI scanners in the province over the next 18 months.

However, some experts say that even after those new machines become available, there still won't be enough.