Healthcare Commission calls for further improvement in diagnostic services
 The Healthcare Commission has carried out a national review into diagnostic services. This found many improvements, but it also found wide variations in performance including unacceptable waits for scans at some hospitals.
The Commission warns that delays in diagnostic services such as x-rays and scans could hinder some trusts in meeting the government’s target of a maximum of 18-weeks wait from referral to treatment.
Sixteen hospital trusts scored the highest rating of 'excellent' and 15 scored the lowest of 'weak'. Sixty one trusts got a rating of 'good', while 61 were 'fair'.
The review looked at imaging, endoscopy, and pathology. It assessed the experiences of patients and clinical quality, as well as the efficiency and management of services.
Individual tailored recommendations and action plans for improvement have already been agreed with many trusts. All acute trusts have had access to the comparative data used for this review since March and many will have begun to address deficiencies.
Anna Walker, CEO at the Healthcare Commission, said: “This review highlights the excellent efforts being made by many trusts in reducing waiting times for scans. However it has also revealed great variations in trust performance, in many areas of diagnostics.
"The review should encourage the poorer performers to improve and learn from the experiences of the best.” Public health minister Caroline Flint responded to the review, saying that the NHS had already improved access to diagnostic procedures like tests and scans. But she accepted that further improvements were needed to deliver on new waiting time targets.
"Since 1997 an extra £200m has been invested in scanning equipment in the NHS, an extra 1600 radiographers have been recruited, and the number of students entering radiography training has more than doubled," she said.
"The independent sector is also providing more than 1.5 million additional diagnostic procedures per year for NHS patients over the next five years.
"The Healthcare Commission acknowledges that there have already been significant improvements in overall waiting times for scans, particularly CT and MRI, even against a backdrop of increasing demand.
"There are areas with greater challenges and to help the NHS identify where further improvements need to be made, we have already for the first time started publishing monthly waiting times for diagnostic procedures across every trust."
The document 'Annual health check diagnostic services indicators and scoring' can be downloaded from the Healthcare Commission website.
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