Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce waiting times for children to access diagnostic MRI services.

The National Health Service’s Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care aims for 95% of patients needing a diagnostic test to receive it within six weeks by March 2025. £2.3 billion was awarded at the 2021 Spending Review to transform diagnostic services over the next three years. Most of this will help increase the number of community diagnostic centres (CDCs) up to 160 by March 2025, expanding and protecting elective planned diagnostic services. As of December 2023, there are 136 CDCs, which have delivered over five million additional diagnostic tests since July 2021.

The remainder of the funding will increase capacity for imaging, including diagnostic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) services, endoscopy as well as lung and mammography screening, and improve digital diagnostics.

Growth in the MRI asset base and increased use of MRI acceleration software is creating additional capacity for approximately 572,000 MRI examinations per annum within the system. This capacity will be used to support both paediatric and adult waiting lists.

As of September 2023, South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust delivered 75% of all MRI scans for both adults and children within the national standard of six weeks. Between April and November 2023, the average waiting time for routine outpatient MRI for children under 16 years old was approximately 12 weeks. Children who arrive within the emergency department at Sunderland Royal Hospital who require an urgent MRI scan receive this within three hours of arrival.