Diagnostics done differently: the solution to current staff and workload pressures?

Pathology and radiology form the core of many medical diagnoses, which in turn dictate appropriate patient management and treatment decisions. These diagnostic services are critical to effective patient care. Last month, the Department of Health and Social Care announced that the NHS would prioritise early cancer detection by rolling out new Rapid Diagnostic Centres across the country, and increasing the number of reporting radiographers by 2021.¹

However, trusts are under constant pressure to provide patient-centred and clinically-led services around the clock. Hospitals operate 24-hours a day and, due to new technologies, work processes are expected to continue over a 24-hour cycle. The processes of setting up and running a laboratory, and of providing pathology reporting services and radiology reporting services, takes many resources, the most vital being human resources.

Chief Inspector of Hospitals Professor Ted Baker highlighted the pressures on radiology services in his Radiology review² report of July 2018. Moreover, the 2015 report Productivity in NHS hospitals³ detailed how pathology departments also face challenges such as keeping up with and embracing new technologies, and ‘doing more with less’ as the NHS faces increasing financial constraints. Improvement in quality and speed often requires investment in new processes, equipment, restructuring and, in many instances, capital expenditure to reconfigure laboratory facilities. However, trusts may not be able to invest in much-needed changes.