RADIOLOGY
Solving the efficiency challenges in radiology
Mark Hitchman reflects on the impact of COVID-19 on imaging services and discusses how innovation will drive efficiencies to create a new era of healthcare resilience and a higher standard of patient care.
There is no doubt, every single department inside the hospital environment has been under intense pressure for the last 18 months. The unexpected impact of the COVID-19 tsunami on our healthcare system stretched capacity to its limits, created backlogs in surgery and diagnostic services, and cast a spotlight on efficiency pain points in every department and at every step of the patient care journey.
Calls for renewal and recovery echo in all corridors, and change is certainly on its way powered by collaboration across the NHS, industry and academia. The response to the national emergency in imaging was robust and mainly down to the innovation and quick availability of solutions and support. While we hope that the worst of the storm has passed, the quest for healthcare now, is to address the key issues of resuming all normal services safely, catching up on backlogs and preparing for the unexpected to ensure UK health resilience and a high standard of patient care into the future.
Growing patient demand for imaging services In radiology, the greatest challenge for many years has been the growing number of patients putting pressure on the capacity of imaging services. Take Computed Tomography (CT) (Fig.1); it has been fifty years since the first ground-breaking clinical CT scan and, today, it is a core imaging modality in all hospitals with nearly 268 million procedures performed worldwide in 2019, growing to an anticipated 320 million by 2022.1 From CT Pulmonary Angiography (CTPA) in COVID-19 patients, to diagnosing heart or brain conditions and guiding tissue biopsies, it is an essential tool in the medical practitioner’s arsenal. It helps to diagnose disease and conditions earlier and to improve life expectancy and outcomes for patients. This frontline imaging role is set to stay with CT workforces to be expanded and
SEPTEMBER 2021
Fig 1. Aquilion One Prism Edition CT from Canon Medical Systems UK.
capacity is expected to be doubled over five years as part of the COVID-19 ‘Recovery and Renewal’ reflections2
report.
Addressing the shortfall in radiologists
Added to the growing numbers of patients and imaging service demands, is the challenge of radiology staffing. Every year the Society of Radiographers issues its annual workforce survey highlighting the threats of staffing in imaging departments accrued from retirement, recruitment and retention data. Indeed, this year the theme was no different with fears of a “44% shortfall in consultant radiologists by 2025”.3 Added to this were the alarming, but understandable, insights coming from the British Medical Association (BMA) of thousands of overworked doctors looking to leave the NHS4
as they battle stress
and burnout due to the demands of the pandemic. Recognising the growing pressures on clinical workforces today is obviously a key consideration in the
Patient pathways in the COVID-era What is new over the last 18 months is the way the acute care sector sees patients. All hospitals across the UK have seen approximately 25% of their imaging capacity lost due to the COVID precautions that now form part of our normal lives. This comprises additional cleaning measures between patients, socially-distanced waiting rooms and the introduction of COVID and non- COVID examination pathways. This could, without interventions, impact the pace of catching up with imaging backlogs, delay imaging cancer screening services and mean longer scan wait times. This should be considered in the context of a resurgence of patients who will be returning to healthcare with renewed confidence following the success of the vaccine programme, and with a greater willingness to report symptoms that they did not feel comfortable about mentioning during the pandemic.
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innovative design of imaging systems for tomorrow.
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