Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help reduce waiting lists for diagnostic services at Preston Royal Hospital Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust) has agreed a Diagnostic Improvement Programme with key focuses including:

• Increasing capacity within its Community Diagnostic Centre (Preston Healthport CDC), where a number of diagnostic services are available in a community setting offering care closer to home over a period of extended working hours.
• Upgrading of the CT scanner in the emergency department (ED) at Royal Preston Hospital in July 2025 which will improve testing productivity by i) reducing unplanned downtime (for example through reduced maintenance requirements) and ii) minimising the staff training needed to operate different types of machine.
• Working to develop new opportunities to recruit and retain diagnostic staff.

The Trust also makes use of mutual aid. In the NHS, mutual aid is the voluntary cooperation and resource-sharing between different healthcare organisations or sectors to meet shared needs, especially during emergencies or when systems are under extreme pressure. The Trust continues to scope other options to increase capacity and support from other local organisations via mutual aid.

Performance at the Trust has significantly improved against the Diagnostics Waiting Times and Activity data collection (DM01) six-week target from 49.3 percent of patients on the waiting list waiting in excess of 6 weeks from referral in June 2024, to 39.6 percent in June 2025.

Nationally, the government is supporting the NHS to recover diagnostic services and bring down waiting times through investment in new capacity and technology. At the Spending Review in June 2025, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced £6 billion in capital funding across 5 years for new diagnostic, elective and urgent and emergency capacity in the NHS. This includes £600 million in 2025/26.