Call to speed up diagnostic tests to avoid diagnosis delay
25/08/2006
Avoiding diagnosis delay
I would recommend Alexander Harris because they provide a very good service.
Stephanie, Cheshire
Improving diagnostics continues to be a key priority for the Government, having invested an extra £200 million since 1997. To avoid delays in diagnosis this has been invested in scanning equipment and an extra 1,600 radiographers. The independent sector will also provide more than 1.5 million Diagnosis delay
additional diagnostic procedures per year for NHS patients over the next five years to avoid diagnosis delays.
Despite these improvements, health minister Caroline Flint has said access to diagnostic procedures like tests, CT scans and MRI scans must be improved further to help deliver ambitious new waiting time targets and avoid delays in diagnosis.
To help identify where further improvements are needed, the NHS is for the first time publishing monthly waiting times for diagnostic procedures across every Trust; a move seen as vital in delivering the new 18 week maximum wait from GP to treatment by the end of 2008.
It is now reported that the average out-patient wait is four weeks, while the average in-patient wait is around seven weeks. This positive move forward must be built upon to give patients even more certainty about their treatment and remove the fear of misdiagnosis or wrongful diagnosis.
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