Cancer x-ray services to be reviewed after serious diagnostic failures

National radiology review is under way after patients came to ‘significant harm’ because of scans being assessed by untrained staff

Inspectors have launched a national review into radiology services in the NHS after it emerged patients came to “significant harm” at a hospital where junior doctors were left to interpret chest x-rays, including those for suspected cancer.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said it was reviewing radiology reporting across the NHS in England after it found that more than 20,000 x-rays had not been reviewed by a radiologist or an appropriately trained clinician at the hospital. All NHS bodies have been ordered to provide details on their backlogs, turnaround times, staffing, and arrangements for routine reporting of images.

Related: Inexperienced doctors are being left in charge of A&Es, regulator warns

Continue reading... December 01, 2017 at 06:07AM