New guidance to enable equitable access to clinical imaging referrals for advanced practitioners has been made available to SoR members.
SoR representatives have been engaged in work led by NHS England to support clinical imaging referrals for registered healthcare professionals working in advancing practice roles. On Thursday 16 January, the resources were made available for SoR members.
The work has been facilitated by NHS England. However, the guidance is applicable across the UK. Links to the guidance and a downloadable infographic are available from our Policy and Guidance Document Library.
What's the background to the good practice guidance?
There has been a significant increase in the number of non-medical referrers seeking entitlement in recent years. Enabling equitable access to clinical imaging referrals for registered healthcare professionals working in advancing practice roles is recognised as an important facilitator of efficient patient pathways.
The Royal College of Radiologists, Society and College of Radiographers, Royal College of Nursing and NHS England have co-developed good practice guidance - and an accompanying infographic - outlining principles for ensuring more consistent and equitable access to clinical imaging requests for registered healthcare professionals working in multi-professional enhanced, advanced, or consultant practice roles.
The guidance provides clarity to improve the consistency of decision-making about who can refer for clinical imaging. While the guidance is primarily designed to comply with the requirements of The Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) Regulations 2017, The Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2018 and The Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) (Amendment) Regulations 2024, the principles apply equally to referrals for non-ionising radiation imaging.
The guidance is supported by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy and the Centre for Advancing Practice and builds on the guidance contained in the Royal College of Nursing’s (2021) Clinical imaging requests from non-medically qualified professionals (3rd edition).
The overall responsibility for entitlement lies with the employer. The guidance recognises this and highlights how a registered healthcare professional working in an advancing practice role can evidence the service need, and their individual suitability, to be entitled as a referrer when submitting their application for entitlement to radiology services
What are the aims?
By ensuring more consistent access to clinical imaging requesting for registered healthcare professionals working in advancing practice roles, the aim is to:
- Speed up appropriate access to radiology services in all clinical settings across hospitals, community care and primary care
- Reduce the number of steps in patients’ journeys
- Improve patient flow within clinical areas
- Increase patient, carer, and family satisfaction
- Optimise use of registered healthcare professionals’ experience and knowledge correspondent with their scope of practice
- Make the best use of registered healthcare professionals' assessment skills and ensure all referrals for clinical imaging are appropriate