The Department has not made an assessment of the impact of strategic health authority mergers on the access to, and use of, the £3 million capital allocation to purchase dual X-ray absorptiometry scans from the private sector. The Department no longer views the detailed monitoring of cash allocations as the best way forward. Instead, we are focusing on benefits to patients and the national health service, and in terms of DEXA scanning this has meant activity to reduce waiting times.
Information on how many people are waiting for a range of diagnostic tests, and for how long they are waiting has been published since January 2006. It is available at:
www.performance.doh.gov.uk.
It shows that the number of people waiting more than 13 weeks for a DEXA scan has fallen from 9,356 in January 2006 to just 683 in April 2007, including a fall in the number of people waiting over 26 weeks from 3,837 to 14.