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WQ.126/2025
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES
BY DEPUTY J. RENOUF OF ST. BRELADE
QUESTION SUBMITTED ON MONDAY 17th MARCH 2025
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON MONDAY 24th MARCH 2025
Question
"Will the Minister state the expected and actual waiting times between a scan being undertaken and a report being submitted for private and public patients in each of 2022, 2023 and 2024, broken down by X-ray, CT, and MRI scans?"
Answer
Despite the Care Quality Commission (CQC) recommending in 2018 that The National Imaging Optimisation Delivery Board should advise on national standards for report turnaround times, so that trusts can monitor and benchmark their performance'i, there were no national standards for test to report' turnaround times (TATs) until Q3 2023.
Jersey Hospital radiology turnaround times in 2022 and 2023 were therefore benchmarked against the NHS Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT) programme which showed that providers performing in the top quartile for TATs completed 75% of reports (across all modalities) by day three after the test was conducted.ii
In the Jersey Radiology department:
• 82.83% of reports across all modalities were completed by day 3 in 2023
• 87.05% of reports across all modalities were completed by day 3 in 2022
This can be further broken down by modality to show:
Modality | % reported by day 3 in 2023 | % reported by day 3 in 2022 |
CT | 96.31% | 97.96% |
MRI | 87.85% | 92.56% |
X-Ray | 68.38% | 79.24% |
In late 2023 the Royal College of Radiologists and the Society of Radiographers, in conjunction with NHS England, developed the guidance around TATs which the CQC had recommended.
The fundamental basis of this stated:
No verified report should take longer than 4 weeks to be provided after image acquisition'iii
However the guidance is further broken down by exam type and urgency, with an emphasis on differential targets according to urgency and referral source'.
The Jersey Radiology department are in the process of realigning the reporting of turnaround times alongside this guidance from the professional bodies and data for 2024 will be available shortly. Whilst there has been no requirement previously to split the data according to public or private status of the patient, it is likely that this will be included in future statistics.
i Care Quality Commission (July 2018), Radiology Review, available at https://www.cqc.org.uk/sites/default/files/20180718-radiology-reporting-review-report-final-for-web.pdf, accessed 16.07.21
ii Hall iday, K. Maskell, G. et al (November 2020), Radiology GIRFT Programme National Speciality Report, p.7
iii NHS England (August 2023) Diagnostic imaging reporting turnaround times, available at NHS England » Diagnostic imaging reporting turnaround times