Radiology and Diagnostics
Radiology and diagnostic services are vital to almost every specialty in the NHS, to ensure patients receive high-quality, effective and timely treatment and care. The NHS carries out more than 43 million radiological procedures annually (2018/19) providing X-rays, ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), fluoroscopy and computed axial tomography (CT), and also intervention radiology (IR), to help diagnose and treat injuries and diseases.
There is increasing demand for MRI and CT scans; CT figures doubled from 250,000 per month to 500,000 between 2012 and 2019, while MRI figures rose from 170,000 to 320,000 per month in the same period.
GIRFT’s Radiology National Report makes 20 recommendations to help maximise existing capacity and plan for expansion with the creation of community diagnostic hubs, away from hospitals.
In addition, GIRFT’s pathology workstream presents the development of an overarching quality framework – called the Clean Framework – to help pathology networks and labs widen their focus to include the pre-analytical and post-analytical stages of the diagnostic pathway.
The Pathology National Report recommends that The Clean Framework is established as the governing ethos for pathology testing – including tests for COVID-19 – and as the basis of pathology accreditation throughout the healthcare system. GIRFT is now working with national bodies to embed the framework across the whole end-to-end pathway, starting with primary care and emergency departments.
- Radiology Clinical Leads
Alex Barnacle
Interventional radiology clinical lead
Alex is a paediatric interventional radiologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London. Originally from Zimbabwe, she trained in the UK and Australia and has been a consultant at GOSH since 2006. Her main clinical interests are vascular anomalies, renal stone disease and interventional oncology.
Alex has a longstanding interest in service improvement and leads on several initiatives to develop paediatric IR within the UK and Europe. She is on the executive committee of The British Society of Interventional Radiology (BSIR) and a member of the IR committee of the Royal College of Radiologists (RCR). She authored the RCR 2022 document ‘Improving Paediatric Interventional Radiology Services in the UK’.
She founded Paediatric IR UK, an annual multidisciplinary meeting for the sharing of paediatric IR knowledge and skills, and was the RCR-BSIR Travelling Professor for IR in 2018.
Laurence Ginder
Radiology clinical lead
Laurence is a consultant musculoskeletal and general radiologist at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, as well as associate medical director. He completed his radiology training in Stoke‑on‑Trent in the Midlands and undertook a Musculoskeletal Imaging Fellowship at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital.
Alongside specialist MSK work, he undertakes general imaging and has a clinical interest in the imaging of haematological conditions.
He previously served as regional clinical lead for imaging at NHS England for the East and West Midlands, providing strategic clinical leadership across regional imaging services. In this role, he contributed to national diagnostics policy, governance, capacity and workforce programmes, with a particular focus on reducing unwarranted variation and supporting the development of diagnostic networks.
Laurence is also chair of his trust GIRFT programme, leading work on service improvement, patient safety and the implementation of GIRFT recommendations in partnership with clinical and operational teams.
- Radiology Clinical Advisors
Vicky Goh
Radiology (imaging networks) senior clinical advisor
Vicky is an academic radiologist at Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospitals and head of department of cancer imaging at the School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King’s College London.
Her work centres on improving standards of care and patient outcomes. Her research is focused on improving cancer detection and evaluation through imaging innovation and artificial intelligence. She has a longstanding interest in education and workforce development in the UK and Europe.
She is the past Chair of the Royal College of Radiologists’ Academic Committee and workforce lead of the National Institute of Health and Care Research Imaging Group. She has served as president of the European Society of Oncologic Imaging.
She is currently imaging lead for the World Health Organization Classification of Tumours and senior deputy editor for Radiology, the top-ranking journal for radiology.
Elaine Quick
Radiology clinical advisor
Elaine is an experienced Imaging Specialist with a demonstrated history of working in the hospital & health care industry. Skilled in NHS, Healthcare Information Technology (HIT), Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS), Healthcare Management, and Medical Imaging.
Gillian Kitching
Interventional radiology clinical advisor
Gillian is a radiographer with over 18 years of experience in Interventional Radiology at MFT, including previously as an Advanced Practice Radiographer performing vascular access and nephrostomy exchanges.
Since 2021 she has been the service lead at this busy IR centre and supports a team of 24 cross site radiographers.
Gillian is particularly interested in service improvement projects within IR and is passionate about utilising skill mix and enhanced roles for nurses and radiographers to improve patient experience and service efficiency.
She is an active member of several networks, including the Greater Manchester IR leads network, and is on the board for the Greater Manchester vascular network and a member of the GM vascular clinical steering group.
Suzanne Wakely
Radiology clinical advisor
Suzanne is a radiologist, who has worked at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust as a consultant since 2006. She trained in Wessex and undertook a fellowship in body imaging at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. She specialises in body imaging including gastrointestinal and genito-urinary imaging.
Suzanne has a longstanding interest in quality improvement and has successfully led multiple improvement projects in her trust, delivering improvements in ways of working across all stages of the patient pathway in radiology.
She is currently Clinical Director for Diagnostic Imaging – Data and Digital Innovation in her trust, providing clinical leadership for development of digital straight-to-test (STT) pathways.
She is a member of the British Society of Gastrointestinal and Abdominal Radiology, and the British Society of Urogenital Radiology, and has served on the quality imaging strategic committee for the Royal College of Radiologists.
- Former Radiology Clinical Lead
Dr Giles Maskell OBE
Former radiology clinical lead.
Dr Giles Maskell OBE has been a consultant radiologist in Truro since 1991.
He was previously president of the Royal College of Radiologists from 2013-2016. He has particular interests in radiological error and in building and maintaining a healthy culture in radiology departments.
He was awarded the OBE for services to diagnostic radiology in June 2023.
- Former Radiology Clinical Lead
Dr Kath Halliday
Former radiology clinical lead and national report author
Dr Kath Halliday is past chair of the British Society of Paediatric Radiology from 2010 to 2016. She has been a consultant paediatric radiologist in Nottingham since 1998. She has a special interest in the imaging of non-accidental injury and provides expert opinion for cases throughout the UK. She was the president of the Royal College of Radiologists from 2022 to 2025.
Useful information
Transforming imaging services in England: In 2019, NHS England published a national strategy setting out a proposal for implementing collaborative imaging networks on a national basis across England, delivering better quality care, better value services for patients and providing NHS staff opportunities to develop their career and increase their productivity.
This was subsequently reinforced by the review of NHS diagnostics capacity undertaken by Sir Mike Richards in Diagnostics: Recovery and Renewal in 2020, and the GIRFT Radiology national report published in the same year, both of which recommended that all trusts move to a network model of service delivery in line with the strategy.
- GIRFT undertook a review of all 22 imaging networks in England between June 2024 and January 2025, to provide insight into the current status of imaging networks and to identify examples of best practice and areas for improvement. You can read an executive summary of the review here.
- In December 2023, NHS England published guidance for enhancing GP direct access to diagnostic tests for patients with clinical features of suspected chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma or heart failure. Click here to read or download.
- Summary of National Report Findings
GIRFT radiology report puts patients at the centre of the post-COVID service
Improving the experience of patients should be at the heart of work to increase capacity in radiology services within the constraints of COVID-19, according to a new national report on the specialty from the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme.
Professor Sir Mike Richards’ recent review of diagnostic services Diagnostics: Recovery and Renewal called for an urgent increase in diagnostic provision, including the creation of community diagnostic hubs, or ‘one-stop shops’ away from hospitals.
This aligns with recommendations in the GIRFT report, which identifies ways of maximising existing capacity and planning service expansion. Other patient-centred measures outlined in the report include: online booking and extended hours for outpatient appointments, dedicated day case units or beds for patients having interventional radiology procedures and delivering faster results by increasing the amount of reporting carried out at home by radiologists and reporting radiographers.
Find out more about GIRFT’s data-led approach and best practice resources:
- Radiology National Report
In November 2020, GIRFT published its national speciality report for Radiology:
Click above to view the pdf report
- Imaging Networks Report
In November 2025, GIRFT published a review of imaging networks in the NHS in England.
Click the image above to read a summary of the report. The full report is available to NHS staff on the FutureNHS platform here>
- Radiology Report Video
Watch the video about the Radiology report…
Click above to play the Radiology national report video
- Radiology and Diagnostics News