Page 1153 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 May 2020

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Ms Stephen-Smith: The answer to the member’s question is as follows:

(1) The table below shows the number of images produced at Canberra Health Services (CHS) each financial year from 2011/2012 to 2018/2019 inclusive, for each category including:

(a) Computerised Tomography (CT)

(b) Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MR)

(d) X-ray (XR)

(e) Nuclear Medicine (NM)

(f) Image Intensifier (II)

(g) Mammography (MG)

(h) Positron Emission Tomography (PT)

(i) Radio Fluoroscopy (RF)

(j) Angiography (XA)

	11/12	12/13	13/14	14/15	15/16	16/17	17/18	18/19
CT	14331	16039	16004	17708	18944	21422	23370	25968
MR	4912	5007	5113	5045	5462	6203	6790	6104
US	11494	12118	11889	12076	11499	12294	12290	11916
XR	68432	74939	79076	82270	85351	87841	89553	91461
NM	2597	2895	3138	3195	2979	2952	2573	1897
II	3035	3408	3441	3636	4173	4358	4115	2849
MG	378	462	439	416	396	328	271	238
PT	861	1177	1267	1248	1431	1275	912	940
RF	1288	1461	1521	1597	1557	1503	1552	1036
XA	1403	1618	1596	1561	1577	1625	1610	2836

(2) The table below shows the number of studies (by category) sent to the offsite provider in the financial years from 2015/2016 when use of the offsite provider began, to 2018/2019 inclusive.

Year	15/16	16/17	17/18	18/19
XR	33075	37368	37987	60257
CT	419	41	38	8799
MR	0	82	26	130
US	0	2	2	29

(3) In the period from 2015/16 when use of the offsite provider began, to 2018/2019 inclusive, the number of x-rays performed increased by 11 per cent and the number of CTs performed increased by 46 per cent. It is important to note that a CT scan is a more labour-intensive procedure than an x-ray. In the same period, the use of the offsite provider increased by 207 per cent across all categories of testing.

The increase in offsite radiology reporting enabled CHS to sustain a timely 24-hour medical imaging service while also supporting the effective management of leave, staff fatigue, and surges in activity, in the context of a national and international shortage of radiologists. In addition, there was an increase in interventional radiology activity during this period, and the use of the offsite radiology provider allowed on-site radiology resources to be focused on the most complex procedures.

Offsite reporting at CHS reached its highest peak in December 2018 to January 2019. Since then, offsite reporting has been on a steady downward trend as CHS has

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