Christie Medical Physics and Engineering Newsletter 70 May 2022

Astrophysics at Queen Mary, University of London. Asher moved up to Manchester to start his STP training in September 2020, specialising in MRI.

• Sustained local services for scanning close to where people live • Access to specialist opinion across a wider geography and quality improvements

• Reduced risk of missed diagnosis

CMPE MR physics group and the North West Imaging Networks

In the North West of England we now have three imaging networks as shown in the image – Lancashire and South Cumbria (5), Greater Manchester (6) and Cheshire and Merseyside (7). These are rapidly developing entities, which will lead to closer collaboration between NHS trusts within each network and the building of new CDCs. These CDCs will deliver imaging services away from acute sites and to be badged as a CDC each must have a full range of diagnostic services, including MRI and CT. As laid out in the Richards report, there ’s an expectation that the number of imaging systems will grow significantly over the coming years, but also imaging services must become more efficient and this is one of the key areas where medical physics involvement is vital.

Introduction

There is currently a great deal happening within the North West Imaging Networks, much of it involving The Christie IPRP group. In this article I’ll start by giving a little background on imaging networks and then I’ll summarise the lead role that the CMPE MR physics group have had with the North West Imaging Networks over the past year. We’ve been working closely with NHSEI to ensu re that MR services will be appropriately supported across the North West Imaging Networks as the number of MR scanners and departments in creases. We’ve also had a key role in an initiative to provide additional capacity with the current install base of MR scanners in the region. The NHS Long Term Plan was published in January 2019, which laid out a vision for transforming the delivery of NHS services to improve the quality of care patients receive across England. This report was followed in November 2019 by the report on transforming imaging services in England (Transforming Imaging Services in England: A National Strategy for Imaging Networks) and then in October 2020 by the report that many of you will be most familiar with – the Richards report on diagnostic recovery and renewal (Diagnostics: Recovery and Renewal – Report of the Independent Review of Diagnostic Services for England). These documents have led to the development of imaging networks across England, which will affect all of us who are involved in delivering imaging services. Following on from the Richards report is (yet!) another report, this time from NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSEI) entitled The Diagnostic Imaging Network Workforce Guidance Document. This is an important document and lays out the anticipated benefits to patients from the development of imaging networks and community diagnostic centres (CDCs), which will include: Brief Background to Imaging Networks

In the short term, in part due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there’s a need to rapidly increase imaging capacity to clear the huge backlog of patients waiting for diagnostic tests and imaging. However, we’re all aware of the workforce challenges in expanding imaging services – even if we could install hundreds of new MR and CT scanners across England this year, we’d be unable to run these due to the national shortage of radiographers. New

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