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 help ensure that diagnostic imaging in the NHS is reported within 4 weeks.

Ensuring patients receive their diagnostic test results quickly is a priority for the Government. NHS England’s guidance, published in August 2023, sets out that imaging reports must be provided within four weeks, or 28 days, of image acquisition. All National Health Service providers and imaging networks are expected to meet this standard. The guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/diagnostic-imaging-reporting-turnaround-times/

Achieving this relies on good digital connectivity, IT infrastructure, home working solutions, and approved insourcing models established across imaging departments and networks. That is why the Government is investing in digital diagnostic transformation through NHS England’s Diagnostics Digital Capability Programme, which ensures that networks have a core set of digital capabilities to improve the quality, safety, and productivity of care.

The 2025 Spending Review settlement commits to a major transformation of care delivery, moving from analogue to digital systems, hospital to community-based care, and from treatment to prevention. To support this, the NHS productivity plan is backed by a nearly 50% increase to NHS technology and digital transformation spend in 2025/26, totalling up to £10 billion by 2028/29.

NHS England has also formed 22 imaging networks across the country to improve the quality, safety, and productivity of care, and to accelerate test reporting through digital investment.

The Elective Reform Plan, published on 6 January 2025, sets out a whole system approach to hitting the 18-week referral to treatment target by the end of this Parliament including transforming and expanding diagnostic services to reduce waits for test results.