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131 GP direct MRI access’s impact on hampshire’s neurology services: simplifying care or bottlenecks?

jnnp · 2025-11-26 · canonical JSON source

3 visible annotations · policy: published · automated confidence ≥ 75.00%

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Background and Aim To minimise diagnostic delay, NHSE stipulates all GPs to directly request MRIs by the end of 2025. 1 Yet, many GPs in Hampshire currently lack this access. To assess the impact of this policy, we audited the Two-Week Wait (2WW) pathway throughout Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.Methods A retrospective audit to evaluate all patients referred through the 2WW pathway.Results The Wessex Neurological Centre received 15,525 referrals between October 2022 and September 2023, with 206 going through the 2WW pathway. Noticeably, 6% of these cases were diagnosed with brain cancer. Among the 2WW referrals, 33% initially were seen in the clinic following referral, averaging a 9-day wait and an additional average wait of 21 days for scans. On the contrary, 67% were directly referred for neuroimaging by triaging consultants, resulting in a quicker average wait time of 7 days from referral to scan. A total of 12% had non-cancer abnormalities or incidental findings requiring input from a neurologist.Conclusion In our centre, it has shown that direct access for GPs may expedite the diagnosing process and is unlikely to have a significant effect on radiology and neurology services.Reference https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/urgent-gp-direct-access-to-diagnostic-services-for-people-with-symptoms-not-meeting-the-threshold-for-an-urgent-suspected-cancer-referral/naznin.bipasha@uhs.nhs.uk