Imaging equipment ‘woefully underfunded’ say UK radiologists

A lack of imaging equipment in the UK is leaving radiologists ‘very concerned’ that patients may not be cured of serious illnesses when demand for services increases.

Jeanette Dickson, president of the Royal College of Radiologists, has claimed that the service is ‘woefully underfunded’, made worse by cleaning requirements, in place because of coronavirus, which is already reducing capacity.

She claims that normal service before the outbreak was ‘woefully underfunded and under-resourced’ and that they were ‘coping but barely’. When all imaging resumes, and the NHS gets back to operating fully, Dickson says that it would take ‘at least 30-45 minutes’ to deep clean scanners after coronavirus patients and ‘more attention’ was being paid to cleaning equipment between all patients.

The Department of Health and Social Care in England said it was investing £200 million on imaging equipment. However, a comparison by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, in 2014, showed there were just 9.5 scanners per million head of the population, far below figures for Spain, Germany, France and Italy.

In fact, the BBC has been told some trusts just had a single CT scanner in operation in the UK.

Cancer Research warned in April that a drop-off in screening and referrals meant roughly 2,700 fewer people were being diagnosed every week.

Dickson said: “Radiology is one of those services that people use all the time, but don't really often think about, it's not sexy like surgery. Imaging touches on virtually every patient who comes into a hospital. If you look at us on a European-wide average, we are certainly one of the countries that have the fewest number of scanners a head of the population.

"I am very concerned that we may find that patients are suffering unnecessary treatments or unnecessarily damaging treatments and losing the opportunity for a cure of cancer or another serious illness, because of the lack of imaging.”

The situation is worsened when considered alongside recruitment worries. The latest figures form the Royal College of Radiologists show 11 per cent of funded posts for radiologists across the UK were vacant.