The UK continues to have lowest variety of MRI items, CT and PET scanners per million inhabitants amongst comparator international locations, authorities statistics have revealed.
‘Life sciences aggressive indicators 2024’, printed on 11 July 2024, present that the UK had the bottom variety of CT scanners (10), MRI items (8.6), and PET scanners (0.5) per million inhabitants in 2021 amongst 10 comparator international locations with comparable ranges of financial improvement.
The figures had been printed days after well being secretary Wes Streeting pledged to “make Britain a powerhouse for MedTech”, talking on the Tony Blair Institute for World Change’s ‘Way forward for Britain’ convention on 9 July 2024.
The Labour manifesto promised to introduce a ‘Match for the Future’ fund to double the variety of CT and MRI scanners and produce AI-enabled scanners.
Regardless of the UK’s low rating internationally, it has seen a rise of 12%, 10% and 25% within the quantity per million inhabitants for CT scanners, MRI items and PET scanners, respectively, in comparison with 2020.
There was an total enhance from 17.2 scanners per million inhabitants in 2020 to 19.1 per million inhabitants in 2021, a rise of 11%.
The newest knowledge obtainable for the variety of scanners within the UK refers to 2021.
In response to the figures, Dr Katharine Halliday, president of the Royal Faculty of Radiologists (RCR), informed Digital Well being Information that “years of under-investment in NHS capital” have resulted within the UK having too few CT and MRI scanners to fulfill the diagnostic wants of its inhabitants.
“In 2020/21, capital spending was simply 6% of the NHS funds.
“With out funding on this a part of the service, the NHS dangers falling behind worldwide comparators by way of each service provision and affected person outcomes.
“Moreover, we’re coping with an ageing fleet of scanners, many over ten years outdated. These older scanners produce lower-quality photos, function extra slowly, and ship larger radiation doses in comparison with extra fashionable gear,” Halliday mentioned.
She added: “We welcome the brand new Labour authorities’s pledge to double the variety of CT and MRI scanners within the NHS and are happy they revised their preliminary costings to a extra sensible determine, in step with our evaluation.
“Nonetheless, they should have interaction with clinicians to find out the place these machines are finest deployed and the way they are going to be staffed”.
In its coverage report ‘Recovering radiology providers in England’, printed in Could 2024, the RCR calls on the federal government to guard NHS capital budgets.
The RCR additionally recommends that NHS trusts and imaging networks collaborate to centrally fee gear, securing bulk reductions, and agree on processes to recurrently replace their gear fleets in step with demand and agreed unit lifetimes.
A authorities spokesperson informed Digital Well being Information: “We’ll double the variety of CT and MRI scanners as a part of our work to make Britain a powerhouse for all times sciences and medical know-how”.