AQW 30095/22-27

Ms Claire Sugden
Independent
East Londonderry

Tabled Date: 02/09/2025
Answered On Date: 17/09/2025
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Health (i) what measures are in place to ensure patients with urgent diagnostic needs, including MRI and CT scans, are seen consistently across all Health and Social Care Trusts; and (ii) whether his Department has identified reasons for disparity in waiting times between the Health and Social Care Trusts.

Answer:

The recently published Elective Care Framework Implementation and Funding Plan sets out clear proposals for how we will systematically tackle the backlog of patients waiting longer than Ministerial standards, and how we will transform services to allow us to meet the population’s demands in the future.

As part of the Implementation and Funding Plan, £12m has been secured to expand diagnostic imaging capacity across the region. This includes increasing capacity for CT, MRI and ultrasound. The current demand and capacity gaps in each Trust have been taken into consideration during this exercise. Newly commissioned CT and MRI scanners have also been funded at both the Southern Trust and Northern Trust’s Rapid Diagnosis Centres (RDCs) and are being utilised to image patients from across the region. Since becoming operational in 2025/26, the RDC’s CT capacity has already demonstrated a significant reduction in Trust variation. Weekly monitoring is in place to ensure all RDC capacity is currently utilised for the longest regional waits. The RDC MRI scanners are anticipated to be operational in the next few months.

The reasons contributing to disparity in imaging waiting times are multifactorial and vary across each Trust. The reasons include:

Historical funding gaps;

Diagnostic radiographer workforce shortages;

Consultant radiologist workforce shortages;

Capital equipment;

Demand variation;

Complexity of workload.

My Department continues to work to increase imaging capacity, and a bid has been submitted for significant investment in regional imaging capital equipment. If successful, this will facilitate expansion of the imaging equipment base across all Trusts. However expansion will be subject to funding approval.