SNRRS (Scottish Radiology Transformation Program) and NHS waiting times: FOI release

Information requested

1. Please provide the figures for total examinations performed annually in (a) Scotland and (b) each Scottish health board for the last 15 years, to June 2024.

(I) Xrays

(II) Ultrasound

(III) CT

(IV) MRI

(V) PET/CT

(VI) Nuclear Medicine

(VII) Mammography

2. Please provide the total WTE employed annually by (a) Scotland and (b) each Scottish health board for the same period over last 15 years, to June 2024

(I) Consultant Radiologists

(II) Radiology Registrars (trainees; NES-Health Board)

(III) Sonographers

(IV) Reporting Radiographers

(V) Trainee sonographers

3. The total annual number of urgent CT, MRI (62 day path way, investigation of possible or treatment for cancer) performed and the percentage *reported* within 2 weeks of request over the last 15 years, to June 2024.

4. The annual amount spent by (a) Scotland and (b) each Scottish health board over the same period of last 15 years, up to June 2024 on

(I) waiting list initiatives related to imaging

(II) outsourcing / teleradiology firms

(III) SNRRS (Scottish Radiology Transformation Program)

(IV) The cost of setting up and administering SNRRS

5. How many times per year have health boards highlighted a shortage of Radiologists to meet the national Imaging demand over the same period 15 years, up to June 2024?

Response

Question 1

Some of the information you have requested is available from Public Health Scotland (PHS), you can find the information available on the following websites:

NHS waiting times - stage of treatment

NHS waiting times - diagnostics

Scottish breast screening programme statistics

Alternatively you can call PHS on 0345 646 0238 or email at phs.waitingtimes@phs.scot. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the other information you have requested. However, for hospital-level data, you may wish to contact individual health boards (contact details are in the table below), who may be able to help you. The reasons why we don’t have the information are explained in the Annex to this letter.

NHS Health Board	FoI E-Mail Address
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	foi@aapct.scot.nhs.uk
NHS Borders	foi.enquiries@borders.scot.nhs.uk
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	dg.feedback2@nhs.scot
NHS Fife	fife.foirequestfife@nhs.scot
NHS Forth Valley	fv.freedomofinformation@nhs.scot
NHS Golden Jubilee	FOI@gjnh.scot.nhs.uk
NHS Grampian	gram.foi@nhs.scot
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	foi@ggc.scot.nhs.uk
NHS Highland	nhsh.foirequestshighland@nhs.scot
NHS Lanarkshire	foi@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk
NHS Lothian	foi@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk
NHS Orkney	ORK.FOIrequests@nhs.scot
NHS Shetland	shet.foi@nhs.scot
NHS Tayside	tay.informationgovernance@nhs.scot
NHS Western Isles	wi.foi-requests@nhs.scot

Question 2

In response to question 2 (I), some of the information you have requested is available from the following website:

NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

However, this information is only available from December 2013 to December 2023 for Clinical Radiology consultants (Medical & Dental job family). Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy. The requested data on Clinical Radiology consultants from 2009 to 2012 can be found in the following table:

Table 1. Clinical Radiology Consultants staff in post in WTE

Clinical Radiology Consultants	Dec 2009	Dec 2010	Dec 2011	Dec 2012
Health Board	WTE	WTE	WTE	WTE
NHS Ayrshire & Arran	12.0	13.0	14.0	17.0
NHS Borders	5.0	5.0	6.0	6.0
NHS Fife	11.9	12.1	13.1	14.8
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	87.7	87.0	84.3	84.2
NHS Highland	10.0	14.3	13.6	14.6
NHS Lanarkshire	24.6	29.5	30.0	31.0
NHS Grampian	24.5	23.2	25.5	26.9
NHS Lothian	43.6	48.0	52.9	49.9
NHS Tayside	27.6	28.0	25.1	26.7
NHS Forth Valley	12.0	12.0	12.0	12.0
NHS Western Isles	1.0	1.0	1.0
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	5.0	4.0	4.6	4.4
NHS Scotland	264.8	277.1	282.1	287.4

In response to question 2 (II), (III) and (V), while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. You may wish to contact NHS Education for Scotland directly for information on Radiology Registrars. The reasons why we don’t have the information are explained in the Annex to this letter.

In response to question 2 (IV), some of the information you have requested is available from the following website:

NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence.

However, this information is only available from December 2013 to December 2023 for Diagnostic and Therapeutic Radiographers (Employment Over time Tab, Allied Health Professional job family). Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy. The requested data on Diagnostic and Therapeutic Radiographers from 2009 to 2012 can be found in the following table:

Question 3

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. The reasons why we don’t have the information are explained in the Annex to this letter.

PHS analyses and publishes statistics on diagnostic tests quarterly. The latest publication is available at https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/nhs-waiting-times-diagnostics/diagnostic-waiting-timeswaits-for-key-diagnostic-tests-28-may-2024/. You may wish to contact PHS directly to make further enquiries about the information available. Information on how to contact PHS is available here: https://publichealthscotland.scot/contact-us/general-enquiries/

Question 4 

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. The reasons why we don’t have the information are explained in the Annex to this letter. The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for. The role of the Scottish Government is to provide policies, frameworks and resources to NHS Boards in order that they can deliver services that meet the needs of their local population. Funding is provided to Health Boards and it is for Boards to determine any financial allocations for (I) waiting list initiatives, (II) any commissioning of private providers to deliver health care, including outsourcing / teleradiology firms, and (III & IV) resourcing national reporting banks such as the Scottish National Radiology Reporting Service. You may wish to contact National Services Scotland (nss.foi@nhs.scot), the Golden Jubilee University National Hospital (FOI@gjnh.scot.nhs.uk), or NHS Boards individually to obtain information relating to this request.

Question 5

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. The reason for this is that a key word search returned an extremely high number of documents and emails which could potentially be within scope of the request. Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.

You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. For example, you could specify the subject matter(s) of the correspondence you are interested in or restrict your request to a specific business area of the Scottish Government, as this would allow us to limit the searches that would require to be conducted. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner’s ‘Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs’ on his website at: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx.

ANNEX

REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION

The Scottish Government does not have the information

Question 1

The Scottish Government does not have some of the information (i.e. beyond the cited information available from Public Health Scotland) you have asked for because it does not routinely collate this from NHS Boards. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

Question 2 (II), (III) and (V)

The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for because it does not routinely collate this from NHS Boards. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

Question 3

The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for because it does not routinely collate this from NHS Boards. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

Question 4

The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for because it does not routinely quantify the spend identified in this way. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.