NHS warned multiple times that imaging shortages may kill

Coroners have warned the NHS nearly a dozen times in recent years that a lack of imaging capacity could lead to more deaths, HSJ can reveal.

Five of these warnings followed deaths at a single site, Tameside General Hospital in Greater Manchester. The most recent case concerned a patient that died after developing covid during a prolonged wait for an MRI scan.

Sir Mike Richards last year warned in a major report for NHS England about the lack of imaging equipment, and the Royal College of Radiologists has highlighted national shortages of radiology staff on numerous occasions in recent years.

HSJ combed through more than 100 prevention of future death reports and responses published between 2018 and 2021 in an effort to quantify harm linked to these shortages.

Of dozens of reports mentioning imaging issues, including software problems, poor note-taking and incorrect interpretation of results, HSJ identified 11 cases where coroners specifically warned either the trust or system concerned, and/or NHS England or the Department for Health and Social Care, that capacity issues could lead to future deaths.

In some of the cases, coroners concluded that shortages likely contributed to a patient’s death. 

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Source: HSJ, 20 May 2021