26.10.11
NHS equipment efficiency
The NHS in England has been accused of inefficiency over its use of expensive equipment, after an enquiry by the Public Accounts Committee found that about two in every five emergency patients who have suffered a stroke have to wait over 24 hours before receiving a scan.
The committee of MPs has published a report calling for the NHS to re-examine its use of high-value equipment, to see how its use could be optimised. The NHS spends about £50m annually on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners, Computed Tomography (CT) scanners and Linear Accelerator (Linac) machines for cancer treatment, and now owns about £1bn worth of such technology.
Margaret Hodge, the chair of the committee, said: “We were shocked by the unacceptable response times for certain conditions. A modern NHS should not allow 50% of people who have a stroke to wait more than 24 hours for a scan. There are unacceptable variations between trusts in the number of scans per machine, from 7,800 to almost 22,000 a year.
“Money is being wasted because trusts don't join together to buy equipment and get the best deals by exploiting their bulk buying power. The Department of Health is accountable for securing value for money in health spending but has no way of getting trusts to work together or tell them how to buy their equipment.”
The Department of Health cited a more recent study that found that 70% of stroke sufferers were scanned within 24 hours, but would look into the report.
Health minister Simon Burns responded: “Equipment like CT and MRI scanners play a critical role in diagnosis and treatment and we are investing £150m to expand radiotherapy capacity and over £450m to achieve early diagnosis of cancer.
“We are already developing a strategy that will enable the NHS to save £1.2bn by ensuring that trusts take their accountability seriously and encouraging them to collaborate with each other more effectively.”
Half of these machines will also need replacing over the next three years, costing £460m, and patient demand continues to increase.
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