Bring diagnostics back into the NHS
 The independent sector should never have been asked to do diagnostic work that has left NHS equipment standing idle, according to a motion put to this year’s TUC Congress. Delegates were urged to support the Society in moving all diagnostic work back to the public sector.
“There is clearly a move to use private health care to undertake core diagnostic services, whilst many MRI scanners remain under-utilised in the NHS,” said Warren Town, the Society’s Director of Industrial Relations.
“The finance that could be used to deploy them to their full advantage is instead being diverted to private companies, who make a profit from providing a service to supplement and, increasingly, compete with that provided by the NHS.”
The Society also asked fellow trade unionists to campaign for more government funding so that all NHS scanning equipment can be used to full capacity. The NHS would then employ the private sector on an ad-hoc basis..
Parliament discussed the issue of the under utilisation diagnostic resources in July, after The Times reported that NHS scanners were lying idle in Middlesbrough, Coventry and Rugby.
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