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£1 billion to tackle hidden diagnostic waits - Reid

NHS Patients will get speedier access to high quality diagnostic tests in future thanks to a £1 billion procurement Health Secretary John Reid announced today.

The scheme will dramatically boost NHS capacity to provide diagnostic services and means patients will benefit from much quicker access to services such as MRI, CT and ultrasound scans.

John Reid said:

"The NHS has made fantastic progress in tackling waiting times for operations.  Thanks to increased investment, and improved ways of working, maximum waiting times have been halved from 18 months only a few years ago, to a maximum of less than 9 months now and an average of a lot less for most people.

'But we want to make services even quicker.  By the end of 2008, we are determined no one will wait longer than 18 weeks for hospital treatment from the time they see their GP right through to the time of their treatment.  To achieve this we must expand our diagnostic service capacity rapidly.

'We are also going to end hidden waits.  The time patients wait for diagnostics has not traditionally been counted as part of the waiting time measurement.  We are going to change that.  We know that many patients are caught in a 'bottleneck' of waiting for a scan or other diagnostic service, before they are referred for an operation.  This can be a worrying and uncertain time for patients. To them it is very much part of the time they have to wait.  Today's announcement makes a big step towards tackling this 'hidden waiting list'.

'I want to make services more convenient for patients.  Diagnostic tests do not all have to be done in a hospital.  They can often be provided at the family doctor's or even on the high street or other community setting, far more conveniently for patients.  I want providers to think creatively about how services are best delivered and where they could be located.

 'In buying extra capacity from the independent sector we will significantly increase the NHS funded diagnostic provision and increase the numbers of expert staff such as radiologists to provide these services for NHS patients, with equal access free at the point of delivery.

'So far by using the bulk buying power of the NHS the deals we have reached with the independent sector have proven to be popular with patients and good value for the taxpayer.  Expanding capacity in this way allows the local NHS to quickly tap into good value, high quality clinical resources and ensure their patients are treated in state of the art facilities.'