Kettering General Hospital's diagnostics test wait times among worst in the country

KGH bosses say they’re working to clear a backlog after the trust’s diagnostics test wait times were revealed to be among the country’s worst.

NHS targets say 95 per cent of patients should have their tests – which include those such as MRI scans and non-obstetric ultrasounds – within six weeks.

But newly-published data from NHS England showed that the Rothwell Road hospital was nowhere near hitting that figure in December 2022.

Of the 16,483 people waiting for tests that month 10,573 – just over 64 per cent – had been waiting for more than six weeks.

And 5,311 of them – almost one-in-three – had spent more than 13 weeks on the waiting list.

The hospital’s chief operating officer Fay Gordon said: “There has been very significant and growing demand for diagnostic tests in Northamptonshire and this has been recognised by our trust and by health leaders in the county and nationally. At Kettering General Hospital we have seen overall demand for diagnostics such as MRI, ultrasound, some heart procedures and lung function tests increase by approximately 20 per cent compared to the period prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We have continued to prioritise urgent requests, for instance cancer diagnosis, for which we have seen a 15 per cent increase, and this also contributes to a lengthening wait time for patients with routine requests. We are working very hard as a trust, and a health community, to address the diagnostic waiting backlog and this has involved increased use of rented mobile units (MRI), using capacity with private providers and with specialist companies to help address the backlog.

“There are plans to further increase diagnostic capacity in Northamptonshire this year to address this in the short-term with additional spending on private capacity. In the longer terms we will work as a health community to improve diagnostic capacity in Northamptonshire as a whole with plans already being developed for 2024.”

Just a handful of NHS trusts performed worse than KGH when it came to diagnostics test waiting times, the NHS data revealed.

They included Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust (66.1 per cent waiting more than six weeks), Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust (71 per cent) and Wirral Community Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust (65.7 per cent). However, the total number of patients on their waiting lists was much smaller.

At nearby Northampton General Hospital 37.1 per cent of patients had waited more than six weeks for their test.

Jason Brady, partner and head of medical negligence solicitors Blackwater Law, said: “It is concerning to see that such a small percentage of patients were receiving diagnostics tests within the six-week target.

"The ongoing issues at the NHS may have had a part to play. However, here at Blackwater Law we unfortunately see the impact of delays on patient outcomes.”

Last week the Government revealed Corby would get a new community diagnostic centre, promising an extra 61,330 tests, checks and scans a year.