Our Radiology team has made huge improvements, from facing a backlog of 11,000 scans awaiting results in January 2023, to zero backlog and we’re now among the top performers in the country for reporting results.

We’re reporting 100% of CT scans within 28 days, in line with the national standard. For patients with suspected cancer, results are available within 48 hours.

Previously we struggled to report scan results within the national timeframe, achieving just 24% within two weeks in December 2021. Reporting scans is when a radiology consultant examines the image and interprets what might be wrong, spotting diseases such as cancer. This informs a patient’s treatment going forward, which cannot begin until the scan results are in.

MRI scan results have seen similar improvements, going from 33% reported within 14 days in 2021 to 90% now.

Pravin Ghadge, radiology consultant and clinical lead, said:

To go from the bottom of the pack to one of the top performers in the country has taken a lot of hard work from the whole team.

The last few years have been a struggle for us, we were facing a huge backlog following a surge in demand after the pandemic and reporting results of more complicated scans was a particular issue. To now have a happy team again with smiles back on people’s faces is great.

To get patients their results faster, we knew we had to tackle the backlog and ensure complex scans were reported in a timely way.

We trialled a new way of working where at least 40% of scans reviewed per session were complex, and the number of scans per session (between 12 and 17), had to be completed within a set timeframe (48 to 72 hours depending on complexity). This offered our radiology consultants a challenge they relished.

Other initiatives included introducing opportunities for colleagues to review scans in clinical areas of interest for them; removing an additional rota for specific specialities, to free up radiology consultant time to review all scans; and streamlining expected times for reporting results.

Since July 2023 we’ve also recruited six new consultants to our team, with more to come. This ensures we continue to keep up with demand, which is important as we have increased the number of scans we carry out, with an additional 300 CT scans completed every week.

Pravin added:

Our work affects almost every team across our hospitals, so by speeding up scan results, clinicians can make quicker decisions and start treatment earlier, which is better for patients.

Demand will continue to increase following the opening of a new Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) in Barking, as well as a further CDC at St George’s Health and Wellbeing Hub in Hornchurch, due to open later this year.