A record 1.92 million patients in England are waiting for diagnostic tests such as CT and MRI scans, with one in five waiting longer than the six-week target, according to an analysis by health technology firm Magentus. This backlog has grown by 500,000 since 2022 and is projected to reach 2 million by March 2027.
The waiting list includes 674,100 patients awaiting ultrasound scans, 394,913 for MRIs, and 207,524 for CT scans. Despite the NHS performing a record 2.61 million tests in March alone, demand continues to outstrip capacity, raising concerns that delays could endanger patients' health.
Rachel Power, chief executive of the Patients Association, warned that delays allow conditions to worsen. “A diagnostic test is not the end of a patient’s journey – it is the beginning. Without it, treatment cannot start, conditions deteriorate, and what might have been caught early becomes something far harder to treat,” she said.
Marlen Suller, Magentus’s managing director for clinical diagnostics, attributed the rising demand to an ageing population, more long-term conditions, and the push for earlier diagnosis. She urged NHS leaders to overhaul services by better using existing capacity, testing patients faster, and expanding specialist workforce.
An NHS England spokesperson noted that 29.9 million diagnostic procedures were delivered last year, the highest ever, and that 170 community diagnostic centres are helping bring tests closer to patients. However, the analysis found that patients in areas with the longest waits are nearly six times more likely to miss the 28-day cancer diagnosis target.
