Diagnostics
Tackling the backlog in diagnostics
Jennifer Moncur, National Lead for Diagnostic Imaging at Nuffield Health, provides an insight into the organisation’s £200m collaboration with GE HealthCare, which aims to expand diagnostic capacity through access to innovative, AI-driven technologies.
The UK is grappling with a mounting health crisis. More than 15 million people are living with long-term health conditions, and 2.8 million are economically inactive due to long-term sickness – a rise of over 700,000 since the pandemic. Unsurprisingly, the crisis also extends to diagnostics, an area that plays a crucial yet often overlooked role in nearly all care pathways. Given the need for extra capacity across the UK, Nuffield Health has announced a landmark £200m collaboration which will equip Nuffield Health Hospitals with the latest diagnostic imaging technology from GE HealthCare. In 2025, more than 100 devices are scheduled for delivery across Nuffield Health’s national network of hospitals. Nearly 800 pieces of equipment are expected to be delivered over the course of the collaboration across imaging, ultrasound, surgery, and x-ray.
The need for investment According to the Society of Radiographers, around 90% of NHS patients will have at least one touchpoint with imaging services. This aligns with the experience at Nuffield Health, where 92% of patients require imaging at some stage of their care pathway.
Unfortunately, the lack of diagnostic capacity
has created an alarming bottleneck for those urgently in need of treatment. More than 1.6 million people are currently on national waiting lists for diagnostic tests. The latest NHS data shows that 19% of these patients are now waiting longer than the government’s six-week target, compared to just 3.2% before the pandemic. Despite significant government investment in community diagnostic hubs, the situation remains dire. If we don’t tackle this bottleneck, our national health and wellbeing will continue to decline. All providers, whether in the NHS or the independent sector, have a vital role to play in reducing these numbers. At Nuffield Health, we’re up for the challenge.
Stepping up to the challenge One of the key challenges in diagnostics is workforce shortages. To put it bluntly, the UK does not have enough radiographers and imaging experts. For the first time this year, we introduced a Nuffield Health apprenticeship for Level 6 radiographers. While this training programme will take time to mature, we are committed to upscaling and offering more training places each year to make a meaningful contribution to the national pool of radiographers. Another critical challenge is capacity, as
evidenced by the current strain on NHS waiting lists. This makes our new collaboration with GE HealthCare particularly timely. Nuffield Health prides itself on its mission to build a healthier nation, and increasing capacity and capabilities in diagnostics through this partnership will be pivotal in achieving this goal.
Driving innovation through partnerships This 20-year collaboration will give Nuffield Health access to GE HealthCare’s latest
diagnostic imaging equipment. As a global leader in AI-enabled technology and digital solutions, GE HealthCare will provide our enthusiastic and passionate radiographers with opportunities to use innovative technology, develop their professional skills, and be part of a groundbreaking collaboration. I can attest to how exciting this is for our
front-line radiographers, because I’m one of them. As with all national clinical leads at Nuffield Health, I work in clinical practice at least one day a week. This ensures I stay close to the front-line operations, building a supportive culture and fostering close relationships with clinical colleagues. This approach ensures we understand the daily highs and lows of our clinical teams. We can directly encourage and promote patient-centred care, trial new processes or pathways, and empower our clinical teams to provide feedback and reflect on outcomes to drive continuous quality and safety improvements. It also means, from a purely selfish perspective, that I’ll be one of the first to work on the first MRI scanner to be installed as part of this transformational partnership. With GE HealthCare’s latest technology, which sharpens images while scanning significantly faster, I’ll witness firsthand the benefits for my patients, from improved image quality to a more
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