'Patient x-rays must be viewed as quickly as possible by a radiologist or appropriately trained clinician,' says Royal College head
Inspectors have launched a national review into radiology services in the NHS after it emerged patients came to "significant harm" at a hospital where junior doctors were left to interpret chest x-rays, including those for suspected cancer.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said it is reviewing radiology reporting across the NHS in England after it found that more than 20,000 x-rays had not been reviewed by a radiologist or an appropriately trained clinician at the hospital.
All NHS bodies have been ordered to provide details on their backlogs, turnaround times, staffing, and arrangements for routine reporting of images.
The move comes after inspectors found three "serious incidents" involving patients at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth.
Inspectors reviewed diagnostic services at the hospital after a member of public raised concerns.
It has ordered the trust to take immediate action to ensure that x-rays are reviewed by appropriately trained clinicians.
The incidents included two where lung cancer had possibly spread due to inexperienced doctors being left to interpret scans.
Two patients attended as emergency cases and were sent for a chest x-ray but neither received a formal radiological report, the CQC said.
In the first case, a junior doctor interpreted the x-ray and reported that "no abnormality was detected".
A year later, after a GP referral for an x-ray, a radiologist detected lung cancer.
When re-reviewing the initial x-ray, the expert also felt the "abnormality" was evident in the previous chest x-ray, taken a year earlier.
The second case was very similar, the CQC said.
