Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)

Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

Question reference: S6W-33664

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 29 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is working with NHS boards to enhance access to mobile diagnostic units in rural areas, and what progress has been made in the last five years.

Neil Gray: Since 2021, we have provided three permanent CT scanners to support core diagnostic imaging capacity within Boards, including a mobile CT pod which is deployed flexibly to Boards that require additional capacity. In addition, one further mobile CT and seven mobile MRI scanners are being used across multiple NHS Boards to provide additional capacity.

In the last 2 years, the Scottish Government has supported the North Imaging Alliance to:

Test a regional mobile MRI service, hosted within one of the North region boards, with the potential to be used anywhere in the North or across Scotland.
Provide additional capacity (over and above existing mobile MRI arrangements) to accelerate work on reducing waiting times for MRI.

During 2024-25:

The regional mobile MRI van is anticipated to remove circa 3,700 patients from waiting lists in the North, participating boards are Grampian, Highland, Orkney, and Tayside.
2,408 patients have received scans to date and have been removed from waiting lists
This has saved NHS Orkney approximately £180k and meant 313 patients were able to receive scans locally rather than having to travel further afield.

Significant additional activity is already underway following the allocation of £30 million funding to target reductions to the national backlogs that built up throughout the pandemic. This includes over 40,000 extra diagnostic procedures.

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Question reference: S6W-33664

Answer