Solving the Radiology Shortage Crisis with TeleRadiology Hub

               Medical imaging is very helpful in diagnosis. Clinicians use it to clinch the diagnosis and it plays a huge role in the management of cases. This has made the field of Radiology indispensible in Medicine. With the use of diagnostic images skyrocketing in the past few years, there’s an exponential increase in the demand for radiologists all over the world. However, The Royal College of Radiologists had a workforce census which highlighted shortage of radiologists and the desperate need of the United Kingdom for more and more radiologists. In their 2016 workforce census, the UK was identified to be the 3rd lowest among the countries in Europe in the number of radiologists per 100,000 patients. The UK has only 7.5 clinicians per 100,000 patients which is a far cry from the average among European countries which was 12.7 clinicians per 100,000 patients.

                  With 22% of the workforce expected to retire in the next few years, the UK has been having a hard time coping with the shortage of radiologists. Unfortunately, there is a dwindling number of trainees willing to replace them. In 2016 alone, there is a vacancy in one of every ten positions for radiologists with two of every three positions unoccupied for more than 12 months.

               There is a discrepancy between the increasing number of retiring consultants versus the number of new consultants to replace them. It is said that there will only be a 1% increase in the workforce for radiologists in the UK.

          Most if not all aspects of modern medicine depend on radiologists for diagnostic imaging and interventional radiology. The shortage of radiologists in the UK will result in overworked radiologists and employees, a huge backlog of diagnostic imaging results, delayed diagnosis and treatment and an overall poor patient outcome. Delays put patients’ lives at risk for complications that are actually preventable had they been given prompt diagnosis and treatment.

               As modern medicine continue to make great leaps and improvement in the different medical imaging modalities, scans become more complex and there is now a longer time needed for interpretation. This and the ever-growing demand for imaging studies only add to the humongous backlog of work for radiologists.

                  A few years back, out of all the NHS imaging departments, only a total of 3% were able to make their imaging reports during normal working hours. The rest had to work overtime and make their reports. The NHS had spent a total of £88 million in the year 2016 to cover for the shortage in the workforce. The same amount could have been used to pay over a thousand of full-time radiology consultants.

                  The president of The Royal College of Radiologists, Dr Nicola Strickland, expressed that there is a dire need for the government to invest in the training of new radiologists who will take over the high number of retiring radiologists and decrease the backlog of reports instead of paying for overtime work done by radiologists and locum consultants just to keep things running.

               So far, there is no end for the critical shortage of radiologists in the UK. There have been attempts to recruit radiologist all over the world to move to the UK, but these efforts have not been very successful. There are a lot of factors that hinder the successful international recruitment of radiologists. One is the language barrier which makes communication difficult especially for radiologists who are not fluent in English. Another is the visa requirements which may deter interested applicants from working in the UK. Time and costs can also hinder the success of attempts to hire and recruit foreign radiologists to come work in the UK.

               There are two approaches to this never-ending dilemma: the short-term and the long-term approach. The long-term approach will entail a very proactive way of dealing with the shortage of radiologists. The key is in investing in the radiologists of tomorrow and in their training. It is in giving them more incentives and actively encouraging these trainees to finish their training and solve the shortage problem. There are at least two short-term solutions to the shortage and finding more ways to lessen the backlog of scan reports. One is making these radiologists work overtime to make reports and interpret imaging studies. This has been helpful, but it’s only increasing the number of overworked radiologists and adding to the cost of hiring these radiologists and making them work outside of normal working hours.

The second is to outsource work from other countries. This is proven to be a cheaper alternative without sacrificing the quality of reports.

               When you outsource work from other countries, you are getting the same high-quality reports and the same level of expertise as local radiologists at a fraction of the price. There are a lot of options to choose from and TeleRadiology Hub is one of them. We have a team of 60 radiologists from India who are experts in different fields of radiology. We give prompt and accurate imaging reports for all medical imaging modalities such as CT scan, MRI scan, ultrasound, mammograms and x-rays. Our lines are open 24/7. We can assist in backlogs and the overflow of scans to lessen the workload.

               The biggest hurdle in outsourcing work for radiology for the UK is the policy requires that radiologists have a medical license and that they pass the FRCR exam set by The Royal College of Radiologists. We at TeleRadiology Hub propose to circumvent this by merely drafting a preliminary report and having the radiologists based at the UK to issue the final report. The UK based radiologists only need to check the reports and finalize it. These may mean a few extra steps, but it can already be a big help in decreasing backlog and meeting the ever-increasing demand of radiologists in the UK.

                  TeleRadiology Hub can help you solve the shortage of radiologists in your area. We can decrease the workload and increase efficiency in the interpretation of imaging studies. We offer our services 24/7 with a turnaround time of as little as an hour.

This may not totally solve the shortage dilemma, but it is a very welcome help to ease the workload and which will mean lesser delays in diagnosis and treatment and an improved prognosis for patients.

References:

1. Radiology census Infographic by The Royal College of Radiologists. Retrieved from https://www.rcr.ac.uk/sites/default/files/cr_census_2016_key_messages.pdf

2. Royal College of Radiologists. (2017). Latest workforce report underlines “no end in sight” for UK’s radiologist staffing crisis. Retrieved from https://www.rcr.ac.uk/posts/latest-workforce-report-underlines-%E2%80%9Cno-end-sight%E2%80%9D-uk%E2%80%99s-radiologist-staffing-crisis

3. BBC.com. (2017). 'Urgent shortage' of radiologists in Wales. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-41569256