04/06/2026
🧪 Diagnostics in the NHS: Supporting Capacity Across Patient Pathways
Diagnostic services play an important role in the delivery of timely and effective patient care across the NHS.
While attention is often focused on areas such as elective surgery and outpatient waiting times, imaging and diagnostic services are a key part of the wider patient pathway, helping to support diagnosis, treatment planning, and ongoing care. When demand increases, it can influence how quickly patients move through different stages of their journey.
Demand for services such as radiography, MRI, CT, ultrasound, and nuclear medicine has continued to grow in recent years, supported by an ageing population and evolving clinical need. Alongside this, many services are working to balance rising activity with available workforce capacity across diagnostic roles.
Even where equipment and facilities are in place, workforce availability can play a key role in supporting overall service delivery.
To help manage these demands, NHS organisations continue to explore a range of workforce approaches, including flexible staffing models. Temporary and locum clinical support can provide additional capacity during periods of increased demand or staff absence, helping to maintain continuity of service and support existing teams.
At Pertemps Medical, we work in partnership with healthcare organisations to support access to experienced diagnostic professionals, helping services maintain resilience and continuity across imaging and diagnostic pathways.
Diagnostics will continue to play a central role in supporting patient flow and timely access to care across the NHS. Strengthening capacity within these services remains an important part of ongoing service development and improvement.
