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Dept of Health

Answer

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress has been made by the Changing Workforce Programme in redesigning the roles of diagnostic staff to reduce waiting times. [147271] Mr. Hutton: The Changing Workforce Programme is supporting the development of a number of roles designed to help the National Health Service provide speedier access to high quality services. In particular, the roles of assistant practitioner and advanced practitioner will help reduce waiting times for radiography services. An accelerated development programme is supporting the implementation of these roles across a network of hospital trusts. To date, 81 assistant practitioners in radiography are in training or scheduled to receive training in 2004, while 79 trainees are working towards advanced practitioner status. It is anticipated that the majority of plain film imaging will be performed by assistant practitioners under the supervision of qualified radiographers. This will release radiographers' time and allow them to focus on more complex issues, thus increasing service capacity. Once the assistant practitioners are fully trained, further data will be collected to evaluate the impact on waiting times and access to services. The appointment of advanced practitioners in diagnostic areas such as computer tomography imaging, trauma imaging and gastro-intestinal imaging, has already contributed to a reduction in waiting times. For example, at one site, the waiting time for a barium enema has been reduced from 30 weeks to one week since advanced practitioners have been performing this procedure.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

416 c1073-4W;416 c1072W; 147271

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Diagnosis Hospitals Health professions NHS Waiting lists Screening Testing Radiology Tomography

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk