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Gus Iversen, Editor in Chief | May 27, 2026
NHS spending on outsourcing radiology work and other short-term staffing measures reached a record $421 million (£362 million) in 2025 as workforce shortages continued to strain diagnostic services across the U.K., according to preliminary findings from the Royal College of Radiologists’ 2025 Clinical Radiology Workforce Census.
The spending covered outsourcing to private teleradiology firms, overtime payments and locum staffing. The RCR said the figure would be enough to fund more than 3,000 full-time radiologist salaries. Over the past five years, total spending on excess radiology workload management has reached $1.63 billion (£1.4 billion).
Outsourcing alone accounted for £241 million in 2025, up 12% from the previous year. The RCR said outsourcing costs have doubled since 2021 and could rise to £454 million annually by 2030 if current trends continue.
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The spending increase comes as NHS diagnostic targets remain unmet. NHS England data cited by the RCR showed nearly 941,000 scan reports in England took longer than four weeks to return in 2025, despite a national target that no report should exceed that time frame.
The workforce gap remains a central issue. The most recently published RCR census reported a shortage of nearly 2,000 clinical radiologists across the U.K., representing a 29% shortfall. Demand for CT and MR imaging rose 8% in 2024, while the radiology workforce grew 4.7%, according to the organization.
The RCR also reported concerns among radiology leaders about the quality of outsourced reporting. In survey responses, 86% said outsourcing could result in lower-quality reports, while 90% said outsourced studies often required additional review by NHS radiologists.
“Increasing NHS reliance on outsourcing in radiology is not sustainable, and the costs of this are spiraling out of control,” Dr. Stephen Harden, president of the RCR, said in a statement.
The organization said modeling it commissioned found that increasing radiology training posts by 10% annually could save the NHS £100 million over 10 years, compared with continued reliance on outsourcing and other temporary measures.
