The NHS has spent record highs trying to bridge the radiologist shortage with private providers, findings show.

The NHS is “haemorrhaging” money on outsourcing radiology work to private companies amid a chronic shortage of clinical radiologists, the Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) has claimed.

Since 2021 alone, the UK has spent £1.4 billion on managing excess radiology workload, with a record £362 million in 2025.

Yet this figure, enough to pay more than 3,000 full-time radiologist salaries, is concentrated on short-term solutions such as outsourcing, paid overtime and locums. It also sits in a setting of 940,900 scan results in England, taking longer than a month last year.

NHS England had stipulated that no one should wait more than a month, with delayed results also delaying patients getting their diagnosis, appointments and treatment. The issue is particularly profound with people with cancer, as every month’s delay in starting treatment can increase their risk of death by approximately 10%, according to a study in the British Medical Journal.

The preliminary data comes from the RCR’s 2025 Clinical Radiology Workforce Census report and follows its recent findings that the UK is short of almost 2,000 clinical radiologists needed to meet current demand for diagnostics.

The report also shared that outsourcing scans read by private teleradiology companies formed £241 million of the total cost in 2025 – a £25 million (12%) increase from 2024. The cost of outsourcing in radiology has doubled since 2021 and is now due to nearly double again, to £454 million by 2030.

Concerns in a burdened sector

In response, 90% of radiology leaders were concerned that outsourced reports need double-checking by NHS clinical radiologists, adding to their already heavy workloads. In addition, 86% felt concerned that outsourcing results in lower-quality reports.

“Clinical radiologists play an essential role in making most diagnoses, but rising demand for scans is outstripping our capacity. The single best investment the NHS could make to reduce waiting lists is to train up more clinical radiologists,” said RCR president Stephen Harden.

Workforce gaps aren’t unique to radiology, but modelling also commissioned by the RCR shows that training up just 10% more clinical radiologists per year would, after ten years, save the NHS £100 million compared to relying on these short-term fixes.

Mounting demand and staffing pressures have also meant that claims for radiology errors have risen over the past decade, hitting another peak last year. 

The RCR’s full Clinical Radiology Workforce Census will be released this summer.