FOI 2026/1770

1. Please provide a list of all current contracts held by the Integrated Care Board (ICB) with independent sector providers for diagnostic imaging services, specifically covering MRI, CT, ultrasound and reporting services. For each contract, please include the following details:

• The name of the supplier or provider
• A description of the services covered by the contract (e.g. MRI, CT, ultrasound, reporting)
• The annual value of the contract (£)
• The contract starts date (DD/MM/YYYY)
• The contract expiry date (DD/MM/YYYY)
• Details of any extension options included within the contract (e.g. duration, conditions)

2. Does the ICB currently operate or commission any Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs)? If so, for each CDC, please provide:

• The full postal address or location
• The imaging capacity by modality (i.e. number of MRI, CT, ultrasound scans that can be performed per week/month)
• The average utilisation rate for each modality over the past three months (expressed as a percentage or number of appointments used versus available capacity)
• Details of any imaging services that have been underutilised in the past six months (including modality and period of underutilisation)

3. Is the ICB planning any procurement exercises for diagnostic imaging services within the next 12 to 24 months? If yes, please specify:

• The imaging modality (e.g. MRI, CT, ultrasound)
• The anticipated timeline for procurement (e.g. planned start date, expected award date)

4. Are any current diagnostic imaging service contracts under review for re-procurement, outsourcing, insourcing, or provider consolidation? If so, please list the affected services and describe the nature of the review.

5. Please state the total spend by the ICB on independent sector diagnostic imaging services for the financial years 2024/25 and 2025/26. Where possible, break down spend by modality (MRI, CT, ultrasound, reporting).

6. Does the ICB anticipate increasing its use of independent sector diagnostic imaging services over the next 24 months? Please provide any supporting documents or board papers that outline plans or forecasts for increased utilisation.

1. Please see the published contracts register for this information NHS Greater Manchester Healthcare Services Contract Register February 2025
2. The capacity of equipment/facilities isn’t necessarily what we submit in plans to deliver as we triangulate operational hours for capacity, local demand and financial envelope for all modalities. Most scanners are open 12 hours/ 7 days but not all. Operational hours are the hours the scanner is in use for patients i.e. deducting clean down time, breaks etc. Contractual arrangements with IS partners who also use facilities for private work can impact the hours we offer for the CDC. Occasionally we have inaccurate planning against capacity so may look to be underperforming against plan but have good utilisation rates based on operational hours and scans per hour.

Performance vs. activity plan data has now been removed from national reporting as we’ve entered the new financial year, the final report for 25/26 hasn’t yet been shared due to data quality issues in other test areas however, this would only provide the whole year position rather than the last six months requested.

Granular detail is held at host Trust level as every CDC is managed and led by an NHS Trust whether activity is NHS or ISP delivered. I’ve attached a spreadsheet with the data I have available at system level which is utilisation percentages and average scans per operational hour delivered. I’ve also included a table on capacity based on equipment available and operational hours. The utilisation reporting options available are either ‘last month’, ‘last 4 months’ or ‘cumulative position’ so I have provided the last 4 months position as the closest match to your request. National guidance for productivity / utilisation for CT, MRI and NOUS as follows: –

• CT – 3-4 scans per hour
• MRI – 1.5-3 scans per hour
• NOUS – 3 scans per hour however we have plans split between scans <20 minutes and scans > 20 minutes which can and does impact utilisation figures
• Utilisation data provided is benchmarked against these standards

3. There are currently no plans to procure diagnostic imaging services in the next 12 months however the ICB is reviewing its existing commissioned services to inform future intentions however no timeline has yet been set.
4. NHS GM is currently reviewing its direct access diagnostic contracts for Adult Hearing Loss and direct access non obstetric ultrasound. This will inform future commissioning intentions for these services.
5. The total spend for Independent Sector providers for Diagnostics services by NHS GM in 2024/25 was £11.907m, and in 2025/26 was £13.938m. Based on how the information is held supporting this, a breakdown by modality is not available.
6. There are currently no plans to commission any additional diagnostic services however the ICB will review as part of its 27/28 commissioning intentions.

**An excel document was sent to the requester with this response.  If you require a copy of the full response, together with the attachments, please contact NHS GM’s FOI team – nhsgm.foi@nhs.net **