Brain: Tomography
(asked on 12th May 2023) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on the number of GP surgeries in England that have sent patients directly for brain imaging through head (a) MRI and (b) CT scans in each of the last five years.
NHS England holds data for four years 2018/19 to 2021/22 but only partial data for 2022/23. The following tables shows the number of general practices in England for which patients received Magnetic Resonance Imaging of head or Computed Tomography of head via a general practitioner (GP) direct access.
2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | |
MRI of head | 5,458 | 5,379 | 5,173 | 5,218 |
CT of head | 5,348 | 5,424 | 4,872 | 5,005 |
Source: Diagnostic Imaging Dataset, https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/diagnostic-imaging-dataset/.
The Government is not aware of whether local health bodies have data on the number of GP surgeries across England who refer patients directly for brain imaging.