A severe shortage of interventional radiologists in the U.K. National Health Service (NHS) is resulting in unnecessary death and disability for patients, according to a 30 December article in the Observer, a Sunday national newspaper.
The serious shortage of interventional radiologists is having a damagingly negative effect on patient care, said Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) President Dr. Nicola Strickland in the Observer article. Although Strickland noted it can't explicitly be quantified how many people die or suffer because they do not get seen by an interventional radiologist, she said there is no doubt that people around the country are dying or coming to serious harm due to the lack of interventional radiology provision in their area.
For example, Strickland told the Observer the RCR knew of cases where patients suffering severe bleeding from their kidneys and postoperative bleeding had died because they were unable to reach an interventional radiologist in time. In addition, some women who suffer a hemorrhage during childbirth have had to undergo a hysterectomy to avoid bleeding to death, noted the report.
In a recent parliamentary written answer, health minister Philip Dunne acknowledged that 39 (26%) of the 148 hospital trusts in England can't offer interventional radiology service to patients seven days a week due to a shortage of interventional radiologists, stated the Observer article.
Furthermore, hospitals have about 44% fewer interventional radiologists than they need. The RCR has found there are only 414 interventional radiologists in England, five years after a government-commissioned review concluded that 735 interventional radiologists were required to provide 24/7 on-call service everywhere.
In a 31 December tweet, Strickland called for funding of more interventional radiologists in order to boost care.
