Responding to the recent Care Quality Commission revelations of significant variation in ‘urgent’ radiology reporting for A&E, Jane Rendall, managing director Sectra UK and Ireland, said:
“The recent CQC report should be welcomed for revealing response and resource challenges faced by radiology departments in hospitals across the country.
“But a great deal more can be done to alleviate growing pressures faced in radiology, to make workflow effective, and to support radiologists in delivering a timely and vital diagnostic function for patients.
“This cannot all be about setting new targets. Trusts can no longer deliver their diagnostic functions in isolation, and must be open to working with each other and to creating regional hubs, where reporting can be prioritised across their combined resources and scarce specialists.
“The NHS is increasingly moving to regional ways of working, and their diagnostic imaging must not be forgotten. Pioneering hospitals are already proving that the technology exists to make collaboration happen so that the right images can be sent to the right radiologist where the capacity exists to support timely diagnoses, regardless of geographical location.”
