Background:
Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, operating across two major acute sites with over 1,000 beds, faced mounting pressure in its Imaging services post-COVID. The Trust was experiencing growing diagnostic backlogs, limited internal scanning capacity, and increasing reliance on mobile scanners and agency staff. Delays in patient transfers from wards, misaligned booking templates, and poor visibility of operational performance further constrained throughput.
To address these challenges, the Trust partnered with Meridian Productivity to restore internal capacity, improve service coordination, and reduce the cost of diagnostics delivery—without compromising patient care.
Analysis:
Meridian conducted a comprehensive six-week review of the Trust’s CT and MRI services. This included direct observational studies and supervisory data analysis across Imaging, Inpatient, and Booking functions.
The findings revealed:
Slot utilisation as low as 40% in some sessions
No formal inpatient scheduling process, resulting in missed scans and patient delays
Misaligned outpatient templates that didn’t reflect scan duration norms
Limited performance data to inform real-time decision-making
At a time when imaging demand was high, the Trust lacked the systems and visibility to make full use of its existing resources.
Implementation:
A 21-week improvement programme was launched across the Imaging department. Meridian collaborated with modality leads, operational managers, and booking teams to embed a bespoke management control system. Key initiatives included:
Redesigning CT and MRI templates to reflect scan norms and eliminate unused slots
Installing inpatient scheduling tools to improve flow and reduce transport delays
Introducing weekly forecasting, booking dashboards, and performance reports to support proactive decision-making
Training staff to lead daily and weekly review meetings, enabling local ownership of performance
Realigning operating hours and staffing patterns using capacity and demand modelling
The programme also reduced reliance on external diagnostics by bringing outsourced work back in-house—delivering savings and faster access for patients.
Results:
he impact was immediate and sustained:
-34% increase in CT scan throughput per hour (equivalent to 120 additional patients per week)
-16% increase in MRI scan throughput (up to 50 additional patients per week)
-£1M–£1.5M annual savings through reduced mobile scanner and agency use
-CT waiting list reduced from 313 to just 54 patients within 13 weeks
-£985K in financial improvement attributed directly to increased scanning efficiency
-Weekly missed scans due to variances dropped from 35 to under 10
-Full utilisation of outpatient slots, with a responsive system to flex capacity as needed
The Trust now benefits from a fully embedded imaging performance framework, giving clinical and operational teams the tools to plan, monitor, and deliver efficient, patient-centred diagnostics.
