LIFE-SAVING body scanner results from Greater Manchester are being sent for analysis 6,000 miles away in South Africa - to slash waiting lists.
Other results from a mobile unit touring hospitals in the region are going to countries across Europe to be studied by radiologists.
The move to use foreign experts was made to tackle waiting lists for the 14 permanent MRI scanners operated by the NHS at hospitals across the region. Previous delays of almost a year have now been slashed by more than half.
Health chiefs have hailed the units a success and say all foreign radiologists are trained to NHS standards and registered with the General Medical Council.
Waited
But the practice of sending the scans overseas has been criticised after an apparent problem occurred in the system.
A Stockport woman, who does not want to be named, claimed she waited eight weeks for the results of a vital MRI scan taken earlier this year and sent to South Africa.
Hazel Grove Lib Dem MP Andrew Stunell, who was contacted by the patient who suffers persistent leg and back pain, described the practice as "daft". Mr Stunell said: "People deserve prompt testing and diagnosis when they are ill, and MRI scans are indispensable as they can be used for all parts of the body.
"It is a scandal that the NHS has allowed waiting lists for MRI scans to get so long they have to draft in companies that send the tests to South Africa. There is no need to send a scan to Africa on safari for interpretation."
Jonathan Walsh, of Alliance Medical Ltd which runs the mobile scanning units, said: "Without the details of the patient from Stockport we cannot comment on her case.
Delays
When we started last year there were some delays of a few weeks but nothing as long as eight. The current waiting time for results is four to five days.
The 12 mobile MRI scanning units run by Alliance Medical carried out up to 80,000 scans around the country last year.
The "fast-track" mobile scanner based in Greater Manchester has visited Tameside General and Withington Hospital and is now set to move on to Wrightington in Wigan, and Hope Hospital in Salford.
In Tameside, the average waiting time from GP referral to treatment was once 50 weeks but is now said to be down to 16 weeks, and in Salford it's down from 50 weeks to 20.
The Banbury-based company has a five-year deal with the Department of Health and an agreement that all scans are sent to radiologists in countries in the EC and South Africa.
Detect
A spokesman for the Department of Health said: "By using fully qualified clinicians in other countries we are speeding up waiting times.
"They've done between 60,000 and 80,000 extra scans in a year. In such a high number I suppose you could get one that is delayed. That is not what we expect and I'm sure if that is the case somebody is looking into it."
The MRI - magnetic resonance imaging scan - allows doctors to look inside the body in far more detail than X-rays.
They can detect diseases, heart and back problems and provide detailed information on glands, organs and joints.
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Whatever is needed to cut waiting times for scans in the UK must be done. My son was told he would need to wait 16 weeks to get a scan to determine if he had cancer. Luckily he was covered through work for private medical treatment. He had the scan (which unfortunately proved positive), had an operation to remove the tumour and chemo in less time than the original NHS scan would have taken. Who knows, if the NHS clears the backlog by using other sources, then others may get much needed diagnosis quicker in the UK. It shouldn't be necessary, but unfortunately, at present, it is!
Alliance Medical eh check out who the directors of this company are non other than old school chums of our so called leader Tony. What justification do the govt have of giving 5 year contracts to their friends?
These practises of sending records and scans to other countrys for inspection Ect is just yet another scam to save the hospitals and doctors money .But make money for third world countrys .But what happens if they make a mistake? how can you sue somebody you dont know or even know where they are from?We are slowly becoming a third world nation ,We have lost our aim "To look after ourselves"Britain we now look after the rest of the world "By employing these people from our doctors surgeries and hospitals what happens when they start charging too much do we try and have the work done back in britain ..We have wasted the last two hundred years educating ourselves .