Ultrasound & MRI waiting times treble in Wales

Posted: January 13, 2014

Posted in: Medical Negligence Negligent Cancer Diagnosis 

The last two years has seen the waiting times for diagnostic services in Wales, such as MRI scans and ultrasounds, treble.  Patients are being forced to wait for these services for longer than they ever have before, with waiting times for general treatment in Wales also reaching its highest level in the last two years.  The Welsh government said that health boards are doing all they can to solve these backlog problems.

The standard waiting time for a patient referred for diagnostic services, such as a CT scan or an endoscopy, is eight weeks.  However, figures have revealed that patients in Wales awaiting this treatment have to wait far longer than patients in England and the eight-week “operational standard”.

Waiting far longer than patients in England

BBC Wales analysed the statistics and found that 32% of patients in Wales had to wait longer than eight weeks for an ultrasound scan, compared with 0.1% in England, (whose figures were released last Tuesday).  Furthering this, with regards to CT scans, 7.5% of patients in Wales had to wait longer than eight weeks for treatment, whereas the figure for England stood at 0.07%.

A Welsh government spokesperson said: “Work is already under way to tackle the rise in the number of patients waiting longer than eight weeks, with health boards putting in place a number of measures such as the use of mobile MRI scanners.” They continued by saying that improvements will become apparent between now and summer, with a three-year plan in place to assist the process.

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