PenRAD Imaging Network newsletter
May 2025
Welcome
Welcome to the latest edition of the PenRAD newsletter.
PenRAD is now over halfway through its fourth year of existence. It is worth remembering why imaging networks were formed in the first place. They were established to help address the impending crisis in provision of all diagnostic services as highlighted in Professor Mike Richards' independent review in 2020.
Please excuse my oversimplification, but the overarching purpose is to employ more staff with more equipment to provide more tests/procedures, faster and more equitably.
To this end, and despite huge challenges, our network trusts have made significant progress with an average year-on-year increase in activity of 7%, with improved recruitment rates and gradually reducing waiting times for examinations and their reports.
The network has played a significant role in helping to achieve this and is now designated as 'maturing' on the NHS maturity matrix.
The new 2025/26 financial year brings with it unprecedented financial challenges to all acute trusts in England, and significant concerns regarding our ability to continue to improve our services.
We have received strong reassurance from the national team and the Royal College Of Radiologists that they believe imaging networks should continue, and are working with the networks to address their financial sustainability.
We are confident of securing sufficient funds in the current year to manage, whilst we develop our approach to securing ongoing funding. We will do this by supporting trusts to operate as cost-effectively as possible, by minimising vacancies, creating the best IT environment for reporting, and reducing outsourced expenditure with our insourced alternative. This year will be our opportunity to prove these initiatives can make savings and be sustainable.
Detailed below you will find some snapshots of the work PenRAD has been doing. As always I would encourage you all to engage and support the network. Huge thanks go to the many of you who already do.
Shared Insourced Reporting
Shared Insourced Reporting is managed on behalf of the four trusts in the Devon and Cornwall peninsula by the PenRAD Imaging Network.
SIRP aims to reduce the use of outsourcing companies, by using Radiologists already working in the region to carry out additional work, that is in common to all trusts and allows for cross-site reporting. This means that the programme can offer Radiologists favourable rates too.
We’re pleased that since the programme started last August so many Radiologists have joined the scheme and are giving us helpful feedback.
Now is a good time to consider joining SIRP and getting involved in a scheme that offers mutual benefit for Radiologists, trusts, and especially for patients whose diagnosis and care may happen faster as a result.
Next steps for the programme include working on opening up the scheme to Reporting Radiographers, looking at how we can facilitate off payroll payment mechanisms and how we can manage retirees reporting for the programme.
Here is some of the feedback we've received so far:
‘The process is flexible, easy to use and highly efficient. It allows us to support the NHS in the peninsula to provide the best possible radiology service without paying a premium to the outsourcing companies.’
‘The system has worked extremely well where I have reported for a hospital outside Plymouth. I have no hesitation in recommending the programme to any interested colleagues who may wish to join us in increasing the reporting capacity available to our patients through this mechanism.’
New artificial intelligence tool live in all peninsula trusts to support the treatment of lung cancer
An artificial intelligence (AI) tool, designed to detect lung nodules on CT scans, is now live in all of the peninsula network trusts.
While very common, sometimes a nodule can be the first sign of a cancer in the lung. Finding them earlier means they are potentially more treatable.
The PenRAD Imaging Network made a successful bid to the government’s £21m Artificial Intelligence Diagnostics Fund (AIDF) to fund the technology from AI provider Qure.ai for two years.
We don’t know yet whether this speeds up diagnosis or treatment; the purpose of the AIDF funding is to evaluate its effectiveness.
The tool uses AI to assist in the reporting of scans by experienced radiologists. qCT provides clinicians with an additional AI-generated overlay on a CT scan, that shows additional information about the size and/or growth of any nodules over time.
This helps determine whether action needs to be taken sooner or later, or is not required at all. Around 1,200 chest CT scans are being processed from patients each week across all four NHS trusts in the region.
Digital update
Our digital programme has resulted in a number of improvements for picture archiving and communications systems (PACS) and radiology information systems (RIS) across the peninsula.
PACS equipment
With the exception of South Devon, where they are timing the roll out of the latest Windows 11 with their deployment of workstations, all new PACS hardware workstations and servers have been deployed.
The data centre and virtual desktop (VDI) clients have been set up for the cloud-based central PACs and are ready for testing with South Devon and Plymouth about to commence. This will be a significant step forward and will allow images to be accessible by all PACS teams at any time, over any (secure) device. It will support standardised, co-produced workflows and worklists across the region for sharing, allocating and reporting studies, for example for PROC overnight on-call and our SIRP insourcing.
An image strategy for uploading data to the central store has been agreed with the first priority being Peninsula Radiology On-Call (PROC) to significantly improve the performance, access and service across the peninsula.
The link between CRIS (clinical record interactive search system) and PACS has been established, which will provide a seamless flow of data. Cyber security status is in the final stages to be signed off by the Trusts with RCHT leading the way.
RIS
There has been ongoing engagement at executive level with Magentus (supplier of CRIS) to enable key developments, beginning with improvements for insourcing and PROC. Discussions are also ongoing for the use of PACS-based reporting alongside the RIS.
Next steps and future direction
We are working to optimise workflows and user experience on the new workstations and to ensure all users are on the latest version of PACS and can use all of the latest enhancements. We will set up user group workshops to develop and confirm workflows for priority reporting (PROC and SIRP), and the monthly PenRAD Digital Advisory Group is providing oversight and governance.
As the EPR landscape evolves, it is key to maintain and enhance the current image sharing capabilities that the consortium now enjoys. We will look at options for the technological possibilities to align digital plans across trusts that will facilitate and support our current imaging benefits.
Consortium approach for PET CT
We are coordinating a network approach to the upcoming re-procurement of PET CT services in the peninsula and have secured agreement from trusts to form a consortium to bid for the services, in partnership with the private sector.
Currently we are in the process of developing a formal consortium agreement and supporting University Hospitals Plymouth, as lead provider for the consortium, in running a process to identify a preferred private sector partner. We are ensuring that colleagues from all trusts are engaged in these processes.
Doors open to prospective health and care students in Truro
We continued our series of successful careers events supporting the well-attended Discovery Day at Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust in January.
There was a fantastic buzz at the Knowledge Spa, with to those interested in a career in the health and care sector, including diagnostic imaging
Attendees had the opportunity to meet and chat with a range of colleagues, take part in interactive workshops and explore various departments in the hospital.
The next careers events will be:
- 20 September 2025: SWITA, Plymouth - Morning session / Afternoon session
- 22 November 2025: Horizon Centre, Torbay - Morning session / Afternoon session
- 24 January 2026: University of Exeter - Morning session / Afternoon session
Click the links for more details and to book a place.
South-west peninsula speakers feature at European Congress
The European Congress of Radiology is a global annual meeting in Europe for radiologists showcasing the latest commercially available AI technologies, medical devices, as well as latest research happening worldwide.
Several delegates from the south-west peninsula attended, including members of PenRAD's AI sub-group, Dr Mark Thurston and Dr Huub Wit. They will be sharing their experience across the region for maximal benefit of all trusts in the network.
Pictured above are Dr Priya Suresh and Dr Asha Omar from the peninsula delivering a talk on radiology errors at the congress in February.
Meet the team
Sam McNabb, Programme Manager, PenRAD Imaging Network
I am the Programme Manager for PenRAD and my role is coordinating our programme of work and making sure we are delivering for our network trusts and imaging colleagues.
I’ve been in the role since the network got going in November 2021, having done a short stint at region. Prior to that I worked in various roles in healthcare project and programme management in the not-for-profit and private sectors, with a brief detour in shipping.
The best thing about my role is working across all workstreams and being involved in all the great stuff the network is doing - including Shared Insourced Reporting, PACS deployment, workforce projects, PET CT, PROC, the BI dashboard and many more – and seeing the real benefits of collaborative working.
New podcast to support student radiographers
Alice Denslow is a final year Apprentice Student Radiographer at the University of Exeter, and also the co-host of the new Student Radiographer Podcast.
Developed by members of the Society of Radiographers Student Network, the podcast aims to inform, empower, equip, encourage, and give voice to student radiographers.
Topics so far have included tackling assignment writing, thriving in clinical placement and learners as leaders. You can find the podcast on Spotify, Apple and SoundCloud.
Data update
| Total demand | Total activity | |
|---|---|---|
 +6% |
+6% |
|
| 12 months to date | 1,618,743 | 1,718,284 |
| Previous 12 months | 1,450,510 | 1,532,390 |
The selected data above is for all four PenRAD trusts in the year to date (end March 2025). As of last month, both demand and activity are up 6% compared to the previous year.
Outpatient and GP data
| Urgency | April-March 2024 | April-March 2025 | Variance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2-week wait (2-week target) | 82.44% | 84.43% | +2.0% |
| Urgent (6-week target) | 87.08% | 89.26% | +2.2% |
| Routine (6-week target) | 77.56% | 78.33% | +0.8% |
| Urgency | April-March 2024 | April-March 2025 | Variance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2-week wait (2-week target) | 78.93% | 80.71% | +1.8% |
| Urgent (6-week target) | 83.17% | 84.16% | +1.0% |
| Routine (6-week target) | 97.30% | 97.50% | +0.2% |
Reporting times are monitored for adherence to NHS England's diagnostic imaging reporting turnaround times released in August 2023. It is generally assumed that these targets will be shortened in the near future, hence we apply a routine target of two rather than four weeks.
The PenRAD BI dashboard is now live, providing the network with access to monthly data for requests, activity, and reporting. Access to the BI report can be requested here. Users can also access the mobile-friendly version of the report using the Power BI app on Android/iOS.
