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The Taxpayers Alliance (TPA) have published a revealing new report in to the underuse of vital diagnostic and treatment equipment in NHS Trusts.

The key findings of the report are:

Using Freedom of Information requests to every one of the 200 Acute NHS Trusts, the report investigates how many times a year each Trust uses each of five different classes of medical equipment:

•  Linear accelerators (Linacs) play a critical role in cancer care as part of radiotherapy treatment. Each patient receives several treatment sessions, known as “fractions”:

    - The average usage of each Linac machine in 2008 in the NHS was 7,191 fractions per year. That is significantly below the recommendation from the National Radiotherapy Advisory Group of 8,000 fractions per machine per year – a rate which was only achieved by 11 Trusts nationally.

    - There is also considerable variation between trusts, with two Trusts (Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals Trust and University College London Hospitals Trust) providing fewer than 5,000 fractions per machine.

    - If all trusts below the national average brought their usage rate up to the average, an additional 128,758 fractions could be provided – equivalent to 18 additional Linac machines.
 
• Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanners are extremely useful in effectively diagnosing cancer and then planning appropriate treatment.

    - The average usage of each PET scanner identified was 956 scans per year. That is significantly below the Department of Health target of 2,000-2,500 scans per year. Only one Trust, University College London Hospitals NHS Trust, achieved that Department of Health target.

    - There was considerable variation between Trusts, and three Trusts produced fewer than 500 scans per machine while one met the Department of Health target.

    - If all trusts below the national average brought their usage rate up to the average, an additional 2,492 scans could be provided – equivalent to three additional PET scanners.
 
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners are a safe means of producing detailed internal scans useful in diagnosis and treatment of a wide variety of conditions. 

    - The average use of MRI scanners in 2008 was 4,912 scans per machine.

    - There is considerable variation between trusts; nine trusts used each machine less than 2,000 times while nine trusts used each machine more than 8,000 times in 12 months

    - If all trusts below the national average brought their usage rate up to the average, an additional 273,680 scans could be provided, equivalent to 56 additional scanners running at the average annual usage.
 
• Computerised Tomography (CT) scanners provide a detailed view of different tissue types not available with traditional x-rays.

    - The average usage of CT scanners in 2008 was 7,424 scans per machine.

    - There is considerable variation between trusts, with six Trusts using their CT scanners over 15,000 times, while seven had an average
usage lower than 2,000.

    - If all trusts below the national average brought their usage rate up to the average, an additional 656,647 scans could be provided, equivalent to 88 additional scanners running at the average annual usage.

• Lithotripters use ultrasound shock waves to break up kidney stones.

- The average usage of lithotripters in 2008 was 457 uses per machine.

- There is considerable variation between Trusts, with three Trusts getting more than 1,000 uses per lithotripter and another just 18 uses per lithotripter.

- If all trusts below the national average brought their usage rate up to the average, an additional

8,528 uses could be provided, equivalent to 19 additional lithotripters running at the average annual usage.

As Katherine Andrew of the TPA states:

“These pieces of equipment are not only expensive, they are crucial to the treatment of people who suffer from a wide variety of conditions. It is simply not good enough that so many Trusts are failing to make the best use of their resources, and in doing so letting down patients and taxpayers. If those Trusts that are lagging behind caught up just with the NHS average, it would make hundreds of thousands of extra treatment and diagnosis procedures available.”