The U.K. Department of Health is tackling the problem of long waiting times for imaging procedures by changing its policies to allow patients to go to another hospital to get their scans done more quickly.
Under the new policy, some 80,000 patients who have been referred by their general practitioner or a consultant for a nonurgent MRI or CT scan, but who face a wait longer than 20 weeks for their first diagnostic procedure, would be contacted and offered the choice of an earlier study at another hospital. The policy was announced this week by Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt, who said it would go into effect in November.
By April 2006, the wait times for inclusion in the program would be reduced to 16 weeks and nearly all imaging studies would be covered, including MRI, CT, ultrasound, and dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA).
The program announced this week is part of the Department of Health's goal of ensuring that no one in the health system will have to wait longer than 18 weeks from the referral by a general practitioner to treatment in a hospital, Hewitt said. Long waiting times for imaging studies became an issue in the last general election in the U.K., which has been boosting its investment in medical imaging technology.
By AuntMinnie.com staff writers
July 29, 2005
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