8 October 2025
The waiting list for tests and scans at the Trust, which runs the county’s acute hospitals, has been hugely reduced, meaning that patients are receiving the care and treatment they need sooner.
The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust (SaTH) is now amongst the top performing half of the country for the proportion of patients waiting less than six weeks for their diagnostic test.
Figures show that in July 2025, the Trust achieved its best diagnostic performance for over five years.
Latest figures show:
- 82.1% of patients have been seen within six weeks for a diagnostic test
- There has also been an 87% reduction in the number of patients waiting more than 13 weeks for their test
- There has been a 40% reduction in the total number of patients waiting for their diagnostic test over the last year.
This is due to the introduction of additional scanning and reporting capacity and the hard work of the Trust’s teams.
Diagnostics take place at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, Princess Royal Hospital, Telford, and the Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) at Stafford Park, Telford.
The overall waiting times for cancer imaging diagnostics have also improved.
In July, our performance against the cancer Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS) was the best in 18 months. The FDS is a national target that a patient with suspected cancer should not wait more than 28 days from referral to finding out their results.
We also saw an improved performance in cancer 62-day referral to treatment with the July performance the best for more than three years and the number of patients currently waiting in excess of 62 days is the lowest for over four years.
The purpose-built CDC, which opened its doors in October 2023, is significantly increasing the number of elective diagnostic tests and scans on offer.
Services include: Cardiorespiratory, Phlebotomy, Radiology (CT, X-ray, ultrasound and MRI) and teledermatology.
The CDC is open six days a week and the aim is for it to be open 12 hours a day seven days a week.
Ned Hobbs, Chief Operating Officer, said: “Whilst we are making progress, we are humble and know we have more to do.
“Behind every number is a person and their loved ones and that is what drives our improvement work. We want to reduce waiting times to ensure our patients receive a diagnosis as quickly as possible, and that everyone has the best care and experience whilst using our services.
“A big thank you to our fantastic teams whose commitment and dedication to our patients has been key in driving our improvements.”
A significant investment supporting our improvements is the new linear accelerator machine (also known as a LINAC) which is now operational at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
The state-of-the-art LINAC is vital in the treatment of cancer, delivering high-energy X-rays or electrons precisely to the tumour, whilst minimising the radiation dose to normal, healthy tissue.