NHS radiotherapy machines 'lie idle'



State of the art radiotherapy machines are lying idle in NHS hospitals, a BBC investigation has found. A report by the Royal College of Radiologists, commissioned by Five Live, found 10% of machines in the 60 UK centres were not being used. The total cost of the machines is £150m, with some of the funding coming from lottery money. The college said the survey findings were "no surprise". The government acknowledged there were problems.

The survey found Maidstone Hospital had two brand new machines that did not work for a year. The manufacturer, Varian, said this was happening across the country, with some hospitals taking 18 months to switch their machines on. This delay is vital as the machines only have a 10-year life. It also found that over 60% of the machines were not using new software that allows doctors to focus on the tumours and not damage healthy tissue. Ipswich Hospital uses this new software IMRT on all its head and neck cancer cases.

Dot West, has been treated using IMRT and says it had a dramatic effect. She said: "I feel very lucky to have this treatment and I think it should be more widespread." "If I have this treatment there is far less chance of me losing my right eye and also further brain damage."

The findings of the investigation came as no surprise to the Royal College of Radiologists. The college's vice president Michael Williams said services have improved, but that they still are not up to scratch. "The present radiotherapy service is inadequate. People are reluctant to admit how bad the situation is because they say it's a lot better than it was," he said.

The Department of Health acknowledges there are problems with radiotherapy waiting times and ministers are currently studying recommendations from the national radiotherapy advisory group on the future development of radiotherapy.

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL hospitals and health insurance schemes should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the very poor and minimal regulation. Both Australia and Sweden have large private sector health systems with government reimbursement for privately-provided services so can a purely private system with some level of government reimbursement or insurance for the poor be so hard to do?

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