North East and Yorkshire trusts adopt tech for faster scan results
- 10 July 2026
- NHS England expands Hexarad partnership, rolling out OptiRad scan reporting software across NHS organisations in the North East and South Yorkshire
- The workflow technology aims to speed up diagnostic reporting, helping patients receive X-ray, MRI and ultrasound results more quickly
- Hexarad says the software boosts efficiency, with one NHS trust increasing reporting output by 12% and reducing turnaround times by 18%
NHS England has expanded its partnership with Hexarad, a radiology transformation platform, to help patients in the North East and South Yorkshire receive hospital scan results more quickly.
Hexarad provides workflow software designed to help hospitals and clinicians manage and report diagnostic imaging more efficiently. This means patients spend less time waiting between having a scan and receiving the result.
The firm is rolling out its OptiRad workflow intelligence software across nine organisations in the North East of England and the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Integrated Care System.
The NHS trusts participating in the rollout include:
- Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust
- Sheffield’s Children NHS Foundation Trust
- Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust
- North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust
- County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust
Farzana Rahman, chief executive and co-founder of Hexarad, said: “Radiology departments are working incredibly hard, but without the tools to see what’s happening across their service in real time, capacity gets wasted and patients wait longer than they should. OptiRad changes that.
“We’re proud to be working with NHS England to bring this intelligence to the North East and South Yorkshire, giving clinicians more visibility and, crucially, getting patients faster results.”
Last year, almost a million patients waited more than a month for the results of scans like X-rays and MRIs. According to Hexarad, the software helps trusts route scans to the most appropriate specialist more quickly, with the aim of reducing reporting times.
At one NHS trust, OptiRad increased reporting output by 12%, reduced turnaround times by 18%, and delivered approximately £150,000 in annual savings on outsourced reporting, without increasing radiologist staffing.
With a 31% shortfall in consultant radiologists projected to rise to 40% by 2028, Hexarad says the NHS must make better use of existing radiology capacity rather than relying solely on increasing workforce numbers.
In August 2024, Hexarad closed a €13 million (£11.2m) funding round with reinvestment from existing shareholders.
Earlier that year, it said its platform had reduced diagnostic waiting times for acute and emergency care patients during a pilot at North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust, before OptiRad was rolled out at West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospital NHS Trust in June 2024.
